When contacted by The Sunday Express, J&K Minister for Public Works and Culture Naeem Akhtar said he was “not aware” of a dossier being prepared
The four sites on the “tentative list” are: Mughal Gardens in Kashmir (made it to the tentative list in 2010); Neolithic Settlement of Burzahom (2014); desert landscape of Ladakh (2015); and an ancient monastery and stupa in Harwan, which is among the Silk Route sites in India (2010). (Express photo/Shuaib Masoodi)
SINCE 2010, four sites in J&K have made it to UNESCO’s “tentative list” to obtain the coveted World Heritage tag. But eight years on, the state government is yet to start the basic, mandatory process of preparing nomination files for these sites to be considered by the world heritage body.
Speaking to The Sunday Express, J&K Culture Secretary Mohammad Saleem Shishgar said the government was “yet to ascertain who would write the nomination dossier for these heritage sites”. Asked about the status of the nominations — the process usually takes two years — Shishgar said the preparation “is not even in the discussion stage as yet”.
J&K does not have a single site or monument with the UNESCO inscription of a World Heritage Site. The four sites on the “tentative list” are: Mughal Gardens in Kashmir (made it to the tentative list in 2010); Neolithic Settlement of Burzahom (2014); desert landscape of Ladakh (2015); and an ancient monastery and stupa in Harwan, which is among the Silk Route sites in India (2010).
....