Abha Narain to prepare dossier for getting heritage site status for Mughal gardens

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, January 20

Well-known conservationist Abha Narain Lambah has been hired by the government to prepare dossier to vie for UNESCO World Heritage Site status for the Mughal gardens of the Kashmir valley.

Talking to reporters here today, Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages (JKAACL) secretary Muneer-ul-Islam said after a proper tendering process, Abha Narain Associates was given the contract to prepare the dossier and the company had been given seven months’ time for the same.

Even as six Mughal gardens and Neolithic settlements of Burzahom in the Valley, besides cold desert cultural landscape of Ladakh are already in the tentative UNESCO list, previous attempts to get heritage status for these sites have failed.

Lambah said so far not even a single heritage site in Jammu and Kashmir had got the UNESCO World Heritage Site status. She said every country of the world vied for the UNESCO World Heritage Site status for its sites as it boosted the tourism flow.

Her group will meet a cross-section of people across the Valley before preparing the dossier to vie for entry into the prestigious list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.