3,000 illegal structures threat to world heritage track

Kuldeep Chauhan 

Tribune News Service

Shimla, May 12

The 96-km Shimla-Kalka railway track, a Unesco World Heritage Site, is under threat from over 3,000 structures, including houses, government buildings, huts and industrial units, that have come up within the 30-m radius of “no-construction zone” of  this 116-year-old track.  

According to top Railways officials, Unesco has asked the caretakers of the World Heritage Track to either stop the haphazard growth in the “no-construction zone and littering on the track or lose its heritage status”.  The Unesco World Heritage Committee is likely to inspect the track and review its World Heritage Status after 10 years.  

The 3,000 structures near the track have left the High Court and the Railways heritage authorities worried.  

This has come to light in a recent survey done by the Railways, revealed sources. A PIL petition was filed in the High Court as to how to save the World Heritage Site from further degrading, said an official.

Governor Acharya Devvrat, acting Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and other judges, NGOs and the state and Central authorities, Territorial Army and panchayat bodies started a cleanliness campaign on the track to send a message to Unesco that the things were falling in line.  “We will write to Unesco and  assure it that the vintage track deserves the same World Heritage Status it got in 2008,” said Raja Bhasin from INTACH, an NGO, which bets for protecting the heritage property in the capital city. 

“Clean and save the Shimla-Kalka rail track campaign” was part of the  effort to convey to Unesco that things are being put  in place, now,” said Shailender, a senior railway officer, who looks after the heritage part of the track.    And no one would be allowed to spoil the landscape and track, he added. 

Col AS  Randhawa, who heads the  Himachal Eco-warriors, the Territorial Army, said they would plant trees wherever possible along the track throughout the year.  “We will not only ensure that  the track is clean and trees survive, but also maintain these for five years. The survival rates of plantations with us are 80 per cent,” he asserted. 

Prempal Ranta, Member Secretary, State Legal Services Authority, which organised the campaign at 43 locations on the track, said the Chief Justice wanted to make a sustained campaign, educating the public and schoolschildren, including locals who live along the track, about the heritage status that brings visitors from across the globe.