Process begins to make Kailash region a UNESCO heritage site

Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, October 16

The process to nominate trans-boundary landscape of the sacred Kailash region, spread across three countries of India, Nepal and China (Tibet) as a UNESCO heritage site, has begun. A meeting of stakeholders in this regard was held in Pithoragarh district yesterday.

The meeting, which was organised by UNESCO and Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, saw the participation of representatives of several NGOs, government departments concerned and GB Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development, Almora.

“The results and feedback from today’s consultations will be presented before a workshop, to be held from November 22 to 25 at WII in Dehradun, to advance the process of putting the trans-boundary land of Kailash region as a heritage site of UNESCO,” said Dr Sonali Ghosh, representative of UNESCO in today’s meeting.

She said the objective of the meeting was to undertake stakeholders’ understanding in identifying the outstanding universal values of the Kailash landscape to become a potential world heritage site, besides gaining their support in the process.

Jyoti Negi, another UNESCO representative, said “The final responsibility to provide technical support to declare the site as world heritage lies on UNESCO category 2 centre (C2C) for world natural heritage management and training for Asia and pacific region, made at WII, Dehradun”.

The Kailash landscape, spread across three countries of India, China and Nepal, is at present being preserved by International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMoD) at Kathmandu. The institute has GB Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development as its Indian counterpart under its Kailash landscape conservation and development initiative.

“The objective of the initiative is to achieve long-term conservation of eco system habitats and biodiversity by developing methods of sustainable development of the region, which is spread in 31,000 square kilometer in the three countries,” said Gurmit Roy, a representative of ICIMOD, Kathmandu.