After the Red Fort, Western Ghats, known for its evergreen tropical forests and rich biodiversity, is all set to become a world heritage site.
“By the year 2009, we are confident of getting world heritage site status for the Western Ghats,” said Dr V B Mathur, the Dean of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), which has prepared a tentative list of 39 natural sites from Karnataka, Kerala, TN and Maharashtra under one cluster called Western Ghats.
The sites from Karnataka include Agumbe Reserve Forest, Someshwara Wildlife Sanctuary, Someshwara Reserved Forest, Kudremukh National Park, Pushpagiri Wildlife Sanctuary, Talacauvery Wildlife Sanctuary, Padinalknad Reserve Forest, Kerti Reserve Forest and Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary.
As per the guidelines of the World Heritage Convention, of which India is a signatory, each country has to prepare a tentative list of sites that it proposes to nominate as world heritage sites, said Dr Mathur, who has just returned from Chirstchurch after attending an UNESCO meeting.
B’lore-based agency
The surveys were conducted by the WII officials with the help of a Bangalore-based agency ATREE. This was done to find sites in the 1.5 lakh sq km Western Ghats.
The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has assigned the responsibility of preparing nomination dossiers for Western Ghats to WII. “We will be submitting the dossier at the next UNESCO meeting at Canada which is scheduled to be held in July 2008,” said Dr Mathur. Once the dossier would be submitted, the Ghats would become heritage site, Dr Mathur said.
Red Fort became a cultural heritage site last month. There are six natural heritage sites in India which include Valley of Flowers and Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, Kaziranga National Park, Manas Wildlife Sanctuary, Sunderban and Keoladeo National Park.