न्यूज अभियान
हरेक खबर विशेष खबर

Three new sites have been added to India’s Tentative List by UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, marking an essential step toward formal nomination for World Heritage status. 

    According to a press release issued by the Permanent Delegation of India to UNESCO, the newly included sites cover key geological and archaeological landscapes, namely the Karst-mud-volcano Complex of Baratang and Andaman Subduction Volcanoes in Andaman & Nicobar Islands and the Sirpur Cultural and Archaeological Landscape in Chhattisgarh. 

    Highlighting the significance of the achievement, the Indian mission noted that inclusion on the inventory is a crucial preliminary stage for any historical or natural site under consideration for global recognition.
"Addition to the Tentative List is a prerequisite before any property may thereafter be nominated for inscription on the World Heritage List," the Permanent Delegation of India stated.

    Acknowledging the effort behind preparing the documentation and heritage research for these sites, the mission added, "We thank the Archaeological Survey of India for its diligent work."

    According to UNESCO, Baratang Island is a unique geological and ecological landscape within the Andaman and Nicobar group of islands, distinguished by its limestone caves, mud volcanoes, and a well-preserved geological history. The island features rock formations that offer valuable insights into the region's tectonic and sedimentary evolution. These features contribute significantly to the ecological integrity of the island and represent important natural processes of dissolutional karst formation (caves formed by rainwater slowly dissolving the rock) and subterranean hydrology.

    Baratang Mud Volcanoes (“Jalki” as called by the local people) are a significant example of seismically triggered mud volcanism. Unlike igneous volcanoes, they emit cool slurries of mud, water and gases, principally methane and hydrogen sulphide, driven upward by diapiric movements of overpressured shale layers, rather than by magma. They build low cones, bubbling pools and dried crater fields.

    This property is protected under the Baratang Reserve Forest/Jarawa Tribal Reserve (comparable to IUCN Category V Protected Area) and consists of the mud volcanoes as well as the largest underground cave complex in the region, featuring numerous limestone caves within an area of about one square kilometre. 

    Meanwhile, Narcondam and Barren Islands, part of the Andaman group, are the only Quaternary-period (the last ~2.6 million years) subduction volcanoes in the inner volcanic arc chain of the Burma-Andaman-Java complex. Together they offer complementary stories of volcanism, ecological succession and endemism. As a pair, they have been of interest to natural science due to their isolation for a long time, as first reported by Hobday & Mallet (1885) in “The Volcanoes of Barren Island and Narcondam in the Bay of Bengal”.  

    The mud volcanoes on Baratang Island consist of a total of four clusters, comprising several small vents. The vents are about two metres high at the centre of the mound. Their eruption process is not magmatic, and after 20 years of dormancy, the mud volcanoes erupted again in 2025, drawing attention to this natural wonder and geotourism site. 

    Narcondam Volcano lies closer to the margin of Asia, with continental-to-transitional crust beneath, while Barren Island lies above oceanic crust. Narcondam shows signatures of recent uplift in the form of a hanging valley with radially arranged drainage and subvertical cliff faces along the shore. There is no crater at the summit of the volcano, but there are three hummocks which represent remnants of earlier eruptions. Though they lie in the same arc, they have contrasting chemical compositions and different evolutionary histories.

    Barren Island lavas are recorded to be mainly basalts and basaltic andesites, whereas Narcondam rocks are dacite-andesite-rhyolite and contain evidence of magma mixing of both mantle and crustal material. Barren Island features a 2-kilometre-wide caldera (a large basin left when a volcano's summit collapses) formed by the collapse of a stratovolcano (a steep, cone-shaped volcano built of layered lava and ash) during the Pleistocene epoch, according to UNESCO. 

    Only the landmasses of both volcanoes, i.e., Barren Island and Narcondam Island, are proposed for listing on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites List. Barren Island was declared a Geoheritage site by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) in 2025. Narcondam Island has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International and the Bombay Natural History Society (Islam and Rahmani, 2004) and as a Key Biodiversity Area. 

    Additionally, Sirpur Village, located in the Mahasamund district of Chhattisgarh state, is a nationally protected monument that bears witness to years of archaeological and architectural complexity, mercantile relationships, as well as standing witness to the power of multi-faith shaping of a landscape, bound by all these elements together.

    The site is located on the eastern banks of the Mahanadi River, at a distance of 78 kilometres from the state capital Raipur, Chhattisgarh. Sirpur's distinction as a unique landscape in natural form comes from its position within the Proterozoic Chhattisgarh Basin, a terrain that is heavily influenced by the Raipur Limestone Group. The landscape is built by stromatolites, which are fossilised, layered sedimentary structures formed over a billion years by cyanobacteria.

    The present day includes contemporary structures with approximately 300 houses and nearly 1500 people. Within the buffer area, there are the presence of tribes such as the Gond and the Baiga, among many others. Their vibrant, living cultural heritage directly complements Sirpur's ancient monuments, creating a unique socio-ecological landscape where historical treasures and ancestral traditions coexist harmoniously. The presence of Barnawapara Wildlife Sanctuary in the buffer zone of the property also accentuates this natural coexistence and setting.

    Sirpur is comparable to properties on the World Heritage List that demonstrate the relationship between commerce, religion, and urban development. However, while individual aspects of Sirpur's significance are represented elsewhere, the convergence of a riverine trade centre, a multi-faith religious landscape, and an extensive archaeological urban ensemble within a single site remains distinctive, as per UNESCO.