Karst-mud-volcano Complex of Baratang in Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Sirpur Cultural and Archaeological Landscape in Chhattisgarh are among the three new sites which have been added to the UNESCO Tentative List of World Heritage for India, officials said on Wednesday.
Another site — Andaman Subduction Volcanoes, Narcondam & Barren Islands — has also been added to the list.
A site should first be recognised on the UNESCO Tentative List before it can be considered for the World Heritage tag.
“India’s heritage shines brighter! 3 new sites added to India’s @UNESCO Tentative List: Baratang Karst-Mud Volcano Complex Andaman Subduction Volcanoes (Narcondam & Barren Islands) Sirpur Cultural & Archaeological Landscape, Chhattisgarh @MinOfCultureGoI @ASIGoI,” PIB Culture posted on X.
According to the UNESCO website, the Permanent Delegation of India to UNESCO had sent these submissions on September 28.
Four sites, including Udaigiri Caves in Madhya Pradesh and places linked to Satyagraha, present both in India and South Africa, were recently also added to the UNESCO Tentative List of World Heritage for India, officials had said on September 30.
India’s UNESCO Tentative List now has 81 sites on it.
“The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, located between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, are part of an outer-arc, sediment-dominated accretionary wedge (the pile of seafloor sediment scraped off the down-going plate) formed by the oblique subduction of the Indian Plate beneath the Burma microplate,” reads a description on Karst-mud-volcano Complex of Baratang, on the UNESCO website.
Baratang lies on the Great Andaman main chain, between South Andaman and Middle Andaman, to which it is joined across the narrow Middle and Homfray straits.
The proposed Karst-mud-volcano Complex of Baratang, which includes several limestone caves and active mud volcanoes, is located in the southwestern part of the island, it says.
“The site hosts numerous individual limestone caves, the majority of which remain largely inaccessible due to the challenging terrain. Situated at elevations up to 76 metres above sea level (m a.s.l.), the site features a rugged, undulating landscape punctuated by deep clefts, narrow fissures, and hidden caverns, which contributes to its scientific importance and research potential,” the website says.
The limestone formations on Baratang Island are sedimentary in origin, formed over millions of years through the accumulation and compaction of marine organisms, including shells, corals and skeletal fragments, it adds.
Narcondam and Barren Islands, part of the Andaman group, are the only Quaternary-period (the last nearly 2.6 million years) subduction volcanoes in the inner volcanic arc chain of the Burma-Andaman-Java complex, reads the UNESCO website.
“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’,” it adds.
Sirpur Village, located in the Mahasamund district of Chhattisgarh, 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, reads its description on the UNESCO website.
The site is located on the eastern banks of the Mahanadi River, at a distance of 78 km from the state capital Raipur.
“Sirpur’s distinction as a unique landscape in natural form, takes 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.
“These stromatolites are a visible and active part of the natural topography, over time calcifying itself, and becoming an abundant, localized supply of unique, textured building material, which is visible today on the numerous archaeological sites, where the architecture is conceived through these stromatolitic rocks as building materials,” it says.
The historic town, referred to as Shripur, was established as the capital of the Kosala Kingdom under the Sharbhapuriya dynasty. The town further grew under the Panduvamshi dynasty, the website says.
