Journey
UNESCO World Heritage — natural & mixed
Seven natural properties and one mixed, out of forty-five Indian sites in all — a ratio that says something about how the country's heritage is understood. Two of these were inscribed to protect single species, one covers thirty-nine separate reserves, and and one of them spent nineteen years on the World Heritage in Danger list.
Stops (8)
- Kaziranga National Park · 1985
Kaziranga holds about two-thirds of the world's greater one-horned rhinoceros, on Brahmaputra grassland that floods every monsoon and forces the animals onto the highlands across the highway. It is also the densest tiger population of any protected area, which was only established after inscription. It is also the densest tiger population of any protected area anywhere, which was only established by camera survey long after the property was inscribed for its rhinos.
- Manas Wildlife Sanctuary · 1985 · danger list 1992–2011
Manas, on the Bhutan border, was put on the World Heritage in Danger list in 1992 after the Bodo insurgency destroyed its infrastructure and its rhino population, and removed in 2011 after the rhinos were reintroduced. It is the clearest case in India of a designation being used as leverage rather than as a label.
- Keoladeo National Park · 1985
Keoladeo at Bharatpur is an artificial wetland, made in the 1890s as a duck-shooting reserve for the Bharatpur maharajas and their viceregal guests. It became a World Heritage site for the migratory birds those shoots were stocked for, which is the most candid origin story of any property here. It is the most candid origin story of any property on either Indian list.
- Sundarbans National Park · 1987
The Indian Sundarbans, the tiger-bearing mangrove delta on the Bay of Bengal, inscribed separately from the Bangladeshi half. It is the only mangrove forest in the world with a resident tiger population, and it is the country's front line for sea-level rise and cyclone landfall. It is the only mangrove forest in the world with a resident tiger population, and the country's front line for sea-level rise.
- Nanda Devi & Valley of Flowers · 1988 · extended 2005
The Nanda Devi sanctuary was closed to human entry in 1982 after the damage done by expeditions, and inscribed six years later; the Valley of Flowers was added in 2005. The mountain is also the focus of the Nanda Raj Jat, a processional pilgrimage held roughly once every twelve years.
- Western Ghats · 2012
The Western Ghats property is thirty-nine component sites across six states, chosen out of a much longer list after state governments objected to the extent proposed. The range holds some three hundred and twenty-five globally threatened species and generates the monsoon rainfall of the whole peninsula. The range holds some three hundred and twenty-five globally threatened species and generates the monsoon rainfall of the entire peninsula.
- Great Himalayan National Park · 2014
The Great Himalayan National Park in Kullu covers the upper catchments of four rivers and an altitudinal range from eighteen hundred to six thousand metres, which is why it carries such variety. Grazing and herb-collection rights held by surrounding villages were curtailed to create it, and that is still contested.
- Khangchendzonga National Park · 2016
Khangchendzonga is India's only mixed property, inscribed for its glacial and alpine ecology and for the sacred geography of the mountain in Sikkimese Buddhist and Lepcha tradition at once. Climbing it from the Indian side is prohibited on religious grounds, which is unusual for an eight-thousand-metre peak. Climbing it from the Indian side is prohibited on religious grounds, which is unusual for a peak over eight thousand metres.