India has proposed to add three cultural sites to the tentative list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites (WHS). The sites are Geoglyphs of Konkan region in Maharashtra, Meghalaya’s JingKieng Jri, a living root bridge and Sri Veerabhadra Temple and Monolithic Bull (Nandi) from Andhra Pradesh, making the total in the tentative list as 49.
Geoglyph is defined as a work of art which comes into being by arranging objects within a landscape. What is Konkan geoglyphs special and significant is that it is the only proof of human settlement in that region. They also depict some forms of fauna that have ceased to exist in this region.
JingKieng Jri is created by weaving and using roots of Indian Rubber tree. While the creation of such bridges may take 10 to 15 years, their life span is 500 years. Sri Veerabhadra Temple known as Lepakshi temple is dedicated to an incarnation of Lord Shiva - Lord Veerabhadra.
Explaining the advantages of being part of WHS list to India Narrative, seasoned archaeologist who retired as Regional Director, North from Archaeological Survey of India said, “The site benefits from this inclusion as it helps tourism, both domestic and international, to grow by leaps and bounds. Whenever a historical or natural place is given this tag, it sees a growth in tourist inflow. He added the tag reflects the site’s inherent heritage and historical value, these places are revered by Buddhists from across the world and specially people of those countries where Buddhism is the dominant religion like Japan, Myanmar, Cambodia, Mongolia, Singapore, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam among others. This facilitates people-to-people contacts making diplomatic relations stronger.”
