India's UNESCO Tentative List Grows to 78 Sites with Five New Heritage Additions

Key facts

• India's UNESCO Tentative List now has 78 sites after five additions: Bagh Cave Paintings, Group of Temples of the Chambal Valley, Udaigiri Caves, Ginnorgarh, and the India-South Africa serial transnational proposal, Sites of Satyagraha.
• The Udaigiri hill in Madhya Pradesh contains a rock-cut sacred ensemble developed primarily under Gupta patronage between the late 4th and early 5th centuries, with twenty excavated caves, sculptural panels and inscriptions forming an integrated ritual landscape.
• The Bagh caves are a group of nine rock-cut Buddhist caves on the southern slope of the Vindhyan range on the banks of the Baghni river in western Madhya Pradesh, notable as the only sandstone outcrop in an otherwise basaltic region.
• Ginnorgarh Fort, the principal fortified capital of the erstwhile Raj Gond rulers in central India, and the Group of Temples of the Chambal Valley (Bateshwar, Padavali and Kakarmath) in Madhya Pradesh were also added to the list.
• The Sites of Satyagraha proposal includes nine components—two in South Africa (Pietermaritzburg station and Phoenix Settlement) and seven in India (Mahatma Gandhi Satyagraha Smarak, Sabarmati Ashram, Mani Bhavan, Harijan Sevak Sangh complex, Sevagram Ashram, Aga Khan Palace and Gandhi Smriti)—portraying the evolution of Mahatma Gandhi's idea of Satyagraha.
• A site must first be recognised on the UNESCO Tentative List before it can be considered for the World Heritage tag.