Kerala leads with 20 sites being inscribed in the heritage list followed by Karnataka with ten, Tamil Nadu five and Maharashtra four. In Maharashtra, the Kas plateau, the Koyna wildlife sanctuary, the Chandoli national park and the Radhanagari Wildlife sanctuary in the Sahyadri range have been given the world heritage site tag.
The decision to include the 39 sites was taken by a 21-nation panel of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) at its meeting currently on at St Petersburg, Russia. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the official World Heritage advisory body on nature, in its recommendation did not include the Western Ghats as four of the sub-clusters were not contiguous as contended by India and many did not have buffer zones. Among the concerns expressed were mining in Sindhdurga district (Radhanagari Sanctuary) and that there was no overarching management plan for the nominated sites. Read the full report here.
Source: Clara Lewis, TNN, Mumbai.
