The Hindu Business Line : Valley of Flowers recommended for Unesco World Heritage List

THE Valley of Flowers National Park in Uttaranchal could soon find a place on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's (Unesco) World Heritage List.

The Valley of Flowers is among the eight new sites recommended by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) to the World Heritage Committee for inclusion in the World Heritage List.

IUCN has recommend the extension of India's Nanda Devi National Park — already a World Heritage site — to include the Valley of Flowers.

The World Heritage Committee, meeting in Durban from July 10 to July 17, will consider the `inscription' of new sites on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

This year, the committee will review 28 cultural sites, 10 natural sites and 4 mixed sites and also examine the extension of nine World Heritage sites.

Renowned for its beautiful meadows of endemic alpine flowers, the Valley of Flowers is also home to rare and endangered animals including the Asiatic black bear, snow leopard, brown bear and blue sheep, says the IUCN. Frank S. Smith, a British explorer, mountaineer and botanist discovered the valley in the late 1930s.

Of the 788 sites that are currently on the World Heritage List, 154 are natural properties, 611 are cultural properties and 23 are mixed properties.

Twenty-six of the 788 World Heritage sites are in India.

Indian sites on the list include the Ajanta and Ellora caves, the Taj Mahal, the Sun Temple at Konarak, the group of structures at Mahabalipuram, the Kaziranga National Park, Fatehpur Sikri and the structures at Hampi.

The most recent Indian site to be included on the list is Mumbai's Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus, which was listed a World Heritage site last year.

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