PARIS, October 21 (ANI) — Three new sites have been added to India’s Tentative List by UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, marking an important step toward potential nomination for World Heritage status.
According to a press release issued by the Permanent Delegation of India to UNESCO, the newly included sites encompass significant geological and archaeological landscapes: the Karst-Mud Volcano Complex of Baratang, the Andaman Subduction Volcanoes in the Andaman and 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 being considered for international 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 work involved in preparing the documentation and conducting heritage research for the sites, the mission added, “We thank the Archaeological Survey of India for its diligent work.”
The Permanent Delegation of India to UNESCO announced that the three sites had been added to the Tentative List of the World Heritage Convention in a statement shared on October 20.
According to UNESCO, Baratang Island is a distinctive geological and ecological landscape within the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, known for its limestone caves, mud volcanoes and well-preserved geological history. Its rock formations offer valuable insights into the region’s tectonic and sedimentary evolution.
These features contribute to the island’s ecological integrity and demonstrate important natural processes, including the formation of dissolutional karst landscapes, in which rainwater gradually dissolves rock to create caves, and subterranean hydrology.
Baratang’s mud volcanoes, locally known as “Jalki,” are significant examples of seismically triggered mud volcanism. Unlike conventional igneous volcanoes, they emit cool mixtures of mud, water and gases, principally methane and hydrogen sulfide. These materials are driven upward by the movement of overpressurized shale layers rather than magma.
The volcanoes form low cones, bubbling pools and dried crater fields.
The property is protected under the Baratang Reserve Forest and Jarawa Tribal Reserve, comparable to an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Category V protected area. It includes the mud volcanoes and the region’s largest underground cave complex, featuring numerous limestone caves within an area of approximately one square kilometer.
Meanwhile, Narcondam and Barren islands, part of the Andaman group, are the only Quaternary-period subduction volcanoes in the inner volcanic arc of the Burma-Andaman-Java complex. The Quaternary period began approximately 2.6 million years ago.
Together, the islands offer complementary examples of volcanism, ecological succession and endemism. Their long isolation has made them subjects of scientific interest, as first documented by Hobday and Mallet in their 1885 work, “The Volcanoes of Barren Island and Narcondam in the Bay of Bengal.”
The mud volcanoes on Baratang Island comprise four clusters containing several small vents. The vents rise approximately two meters at the center of each mound. Their eruptions are not magmatic, and the volcanoes erupted again in 2025 after 20 years of dormancy, drawing attention to the site as a natural wonder and geotourism destination.
Narcondam Volcano lies closer to the Asian continental margin, where the underlying crust transitions from continental to transitional. Barren Island, by contrast, lies above oceanic crust.
Narcondam shows evidence of recent uplift, including a hanging valley with radially arranged drainage and steep, nearly vertical cliffs along the shoreline. The volcano has no crater at its summit, but three hummocks remain as evidence of earlier eruptions.
Although the islands lie within the same volcanic arc, their rocks have contrasting chemical compositions and distinct evolutionary histories.
Barren Island’s lavas consist mainly of basalt and basaltic andesite, while Narcondam’s rocks include dacite, andesite and rhyolite, with evidence of magma mixing involving both mantle and crustal material.
According to UNESCO, Barren Island features a two-kilometer-wide caldera, a large basin formed when a volcano’s summit collapses. The caldera was created by the collapse of a stratovolcano, a steep, cone-shaped volcano built from layers of lava and ash, during the Pleistocene epoch.
Only the landmasses of Barren Island and Narcondam Island have been proposed for inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Geological Survey of India designated Barren Island a geoheritage site in 2025.
Narcondam Island has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International and the Bombay Natural History Society, as documented by Islam and Rahmani in 2004. It has also been designated a Key Biodiversity Area.
The third site, Sirpur Village in Chhattisgarh’s Mahasamund district, is a nationally protected monument that reflects centuries of archaeological and architectural development, commercial relationships and the influence of multiple faiths on the cultural landscape.
Located on the eastern bank of the Mahanadi River, Sirpur is approximately 78 kilometers from Raipur, the state capital.
The site’s distinctive natural landscape stems from its location within the Proterozoic Chhattisgarh Basin, a geological formation heavily influenced by the Raipur Limestone Group. The landscape features stromatolites, fossilized layered sedimentary structures formed over more than a billion years by cyanobacteria.
Today, the village has approximately 300 houses and a population of nearly 1,500 people. The surrounding buffer zone is home to tribal communities, including the Gond and Baiga, among others.
Their vibrant living cultural heritage complements Sirpur’s ancient monuments, creating a distinctive socioecological landscape where historical sites and ancestral traditions coexist.
The presence of Barnawapara Wildlife Sanctuary within the property’s buffer zone further underscores this relationship between nature and culture.
According to UNESCO, Sirpur is comparable to World Heritage-listed sites 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 river-based trading center, a multifaith religious landscape and an extensive archaeological urban complex within a single site makes it distinctive.
(ANI)
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