On 25 September last year, the 45th World Heritage Committee consultation in Riyadh included Santiniketan in West Bengal and the 12th-century Hoysala temples in Karnataka as India’s 41st and 42nd World Heritage Sites, respectively. elaborate), seven herbariums (national parks, etc. ) and one combined (with characteristics of both), for a total of 42.
But this number (42) is much lower than that of much smaller and traditionally younger countries such as Italy (59), Germany (52), France (52) and Spain (50). China, with a history almost as old as India’s, has 57 World Heritage Sites.
According to Tim Curtis, Director and Representative of the UNESCO Regional Office in New Delhi, it is possible that many transition sites in India will be added to the list in due course. “The procedure (for adding a site to the list) is quite lengthy. “Curtis told FE. The minimum duration is 3 years, but it is longer,” he says.
Before a State Party/country submits a site to the World Heritage Committee for consideration for inscription, it shall have appropriate monitoring and coverage plans in place for that component site. After that, you can provide the registration to UNESCO, the parent body. framework of the World Heritage Committee, and from there, it takes 18 to 24 months for the site to be treated for evaluation. The final variety is achieved through an organization of 21 States Parties that are members of the World Heritage Committee (this is a rotating list). A total of 195 States Parties have ratified the World Heritage Convention, which guides the actions of the World Heritage Committee.
Online for recognition In addition to World Heritage sites, there is a ‘provisional list’ of households that each State Party intends to submit as nominated. remarkable universal price and therefore most likely to be inscribed on the World Heritage List,” says Curtis, adding: “Nominations to the World Heritage Lists will not be accepted unless the nominated properties have already been included on the Tentative List.
For example, Santiniketan has been on the provisional list since 2010 and Hoysala temples since 2014. The longer the provisional list, the greater the chances of a temple from a country being added to the World Heritage List. “I’m sure India will have many more on the World Heritage List because it has a long provisional list,” Curtis says.
India has 50 sites on the provisional list, adding the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the Mughal Gardens in Kashmir, the Cellular Prison in the Andaman Islands and the Majuli River Island in Assam. Only China (61) has a longer indicative list. The countries with the highest number of World Heritage sites have a shorter provisional list: France (33), Italy (31), Spain (30) and Germany (7).
Of outstanding universal value
To be added to the World Heritage List, a site must have an “outstanding universal value”. Curtis says this implies that the site (its cultural heritage or herbarium) is an invaluable and irreplaceable asset, not only for the nation, but also for humanity.
The deterioration of the site, of any of it, constitutes an impoverishment of the heritage of all the peoples of the world,” he explains.
This could be the reason why a State party could propose a site outside its geographical boundaries, or why an organization could propose a transnational serial asset.
For example, one of India’s 34 cultural sites – “Le Corbusier’s Architectural Work, an Exceptional Contribution to the Modern Movement” – located in the Capitol complex in Chandigarh was not nominated through India, but through a seven-country organization led by France. 2016, “The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier” is composed of 17 sites in seven countries (France, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Argentina, India and Japan).
More sites, more heritage? A country’s heritage deserves to be judged not only by the number of sites, but also by their quality. “Some countries have few sites, but that’s because of the quality of their conservation and safeguarding,” Curtis says. “The World Heritage List does not deserve to be a race for numbers,” he adds.
But the number of sites turns out to be connected to a country’s point of progression. Some historians FE spoke with said there is a connection between the two.
Citing the example of China, a Delhi-based historian told FE that as a country develops, it begins to take steps to safeguard its heritage, and this is reflected in the number of sites it can submit to the Tentative List (as a site’s “good management” and coverage plans is a criterion for inclusion on the Tentative List). “As India begins to take more care of its heritage and manages to convince the World Heritage Committee that it is indeed doing so, the World Heritage Committee committee will be more open to selection,” he says.
As for why some European countries disproportionately possess more sites (Europe, adding Turkey and Israel, has 518 sites out of a total of 1,199), he adds that the World Heritage Committee had held forty-five sessions, of which 19 had taken place in Europe and nine had subsequently been held in Paris. There could possibly be a bias,” he says, adding: “The Paris region itself has between five and six sites. “
Organizing a consultation turns out to have an effect on the diversity process. A striking example is the 1997 consultation in Naples, Italy, where 46 sites were registered, 10 of which were in Italy. India has never organized a consultation.
Sites removedBeing on the list does not mean being on the list. Out of a total of 1,199 World Heritage sites, 3 have been removed from the list (removed). The first was the Arabian Oryx Shrine in Oman (determined in 1994 and eliminated in 2007). ) due to Oman’s resolution to reduce the length of the protected domain by 90% after the discovery of oil at the site, and it was thought that this measure, through the World Heritage Committee, would destroy the “outstanding universal value” of the site. The moment was the Elbe Valley in Dresden, Germany, chosen in 2004 and eliminated in 2009, when Germany made the decision to build a four-lane bridge in the center of the region.
The third was the Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City in the United Kingdom, decided in 2004 and removed in 2021, due to the city’s decision to continue with the transfer of Liverpool Waters, a 30-year cession that will absolutely cover the city’s docks and in all its likely to destroy the city’s historic centre and docks.
Although no site in India is at risk of being “removed”, there are 56 homes around the world that the World Heritage Committee must include on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Of those, 23 are in Arab states and 14 in Africa: geopolitical conflicts and civil wars have endangered sites in those regions.
Under the Ancient Monuments, Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) (Amendment) Bill, the Indian government intends to regulate construction around protected monuments; Currently, it is forbidden to build up to a hundred meters around these monuments. If adopted, some of the 3,696 monuments centrally protected through the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) will lose this protection, but none of the 42 World Heritage sites or those on the Tentative List are expected to be affected by those changes.
Curtis said the term “cultural heritage” has been significantly replaced. “This does not refer to monuments or physical objects, but also includes traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors, such as performing arts, rituals, festivals, social practices, etc. “he said.
Thus, in 2003, UNESCO followed a Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage that proposed five major “domajors” in which the intangible cultural heritage is manifested: oral traditions and expressions, adding language as a vehicle for the intangible cultural heritage; performing arts; social practices, rituals and festive events; wisdom and practices about nature and the universe; and classic crafts.
The items inscribed on the list of India’s intangible cultural heritage are Durga Puja in Kolkata, Kumbh Mela, Novruz, Yoga, classical crafts of making brass and copper utensils among the Thatheras of Jandiala Guru in Punjab, Sankirtana in Manipur, Buddhist chanting in Ladakh. , Chhau. East Indian Dance, Kalbelia of Rajasthan, Mudiyettu of Kerala, Ramman of Garhwal, Kutiyattam of Kerala, Vedic Song Culture and Ramlila.
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