India happy over deletion of Hampi from Heritage in Danger List

New Delhi, Feb 7 (UNI) India has expressed happiness over the World Heritage Committee's decision to remove the famous Hampi site in Karnataka -- the 14th century capital city of the last great Hindu Kingdom of Vijayanagar -- from the list of World Heritage Properties in Danger, but wants a similar treatment for Manas Wild-Life Sanctuary in Asom.

This was conveyed by Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni to World Heritage Committee Chairman Tumu te Heuheu, who called on her yesterday.

During their half-an-hour meeting, Ms Soni thanked the Committee for its decision to delete Hampi from the World Heritage in Danger list and conveyed to Mr Heuheu that India had been implementing all the recommendations made at the time of deletion of the site from the list.

These include finalisation of the site management and master plans, relocation of the Interpretation Centre, modification of the designs of the bridge across the Tungabhadra river and strengthening of the Hampi World Heritage Area Management Authority.

Ms Soni also informed the visiting dignitary that recently a UNESCO Mission visited India in this connection and expressed satisfaction over the measures taken by the country. The minister also requested Mr Heuheu to consider deletion of Manas Wild-Life Sanctuary from the list of World Heritage in Danger in view of ''the improved situation and restoration of normalcy in the sanctuary''.

Another important matter taken up by India at the meeting was a review of the decision of the Souzhou meeting in 2004 which mandates a signatory country (State Party) to submit only two nominations per year for inscription, of which one site has to be a natural site.

The Souzhou meeting had also fixed an annual limit of 45 nominations per year. These decisions are temporary and are expected to be reviewed in the next meeting to be held in New Zealand in June-July.

While there is every need to promote nominations of site from countries which have no World Heritage site, it may not be appropriate to fix a limit of two nominations for all countries as these do not take into account the diversity among the member states.

''Some countries like India and China are vast in size, with a large population and a cultural history spanning several centuries.

In any case, there is no justification to include serial nominations and extensions in the existing limit,'' Ms Soni said, expressing the hope that the World Heritage Committee would support this contention.

The Committee is responsible for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention, defines the use of the World Heritage Fund and allocates financial assistance upon requests from member-states. It has the final say on whether a site is included in the World Heritage List.

A total of 21 countries, including India, are currently in the list of members of the World Heritage Committee.

UNI