UNESCO’s World Heritage List

Context: 

Santiniketan, associated with Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, has been recommended for inclusion on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

• The recommendation was made by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), which is the advisory body to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, based on a file moved by the Centre.

About Santiniketan:

• Santiniketan, popularly known today as a university town, a hundred miles to the north of Kolkata, was originally an ashram built by Debendranath Tagore.
• Although Santiniketan is a university town sprawling across a large area that includes the entire Visva-Bharati campus, the places likely to get Unesco’s heritage tag are the core ashram area.
• The core ashram area includes: 

1. 1. Patha Bhavana (the first school set up by Tagore in 1901)
   2. Upasana Griha (prayer hall, locally known as the glass temple)
   3. Kala Bhavana (institute of fine arts)
   4. Sangit Bhavana (institute of music)
   5. Santiniketan Griha (the first house bought by Tagore’s father Debendranath).
   6. The Uttarayan complex includes five houses of Tagore and a museum.

• Santiniketan has been nominated as the only living heritage university, where open-air classes are still held under the tree.

UNESCO’s World Heritage List:

• World Heritage site, any of various areas or objects inscribed on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List. 
• The sites are designated as having “outstanding universal value” under the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. 
• This document was adopted by UNESCO in 1972 and formally took effect in 1975 after having been ratified by 20 countries. 
• It provides a framework for international cooperation in preserving and protecting cultural treasures and natural areas throughout the world.

Sites in India:

• At the moment, India is home to 40 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. 
• Out of these, 32 are cultural, 7 are natural, and one, the Khangchendzonga National Park, is of mixed type. 
• India has the sixth-largest number of sites in the world.

News Source: The Hindu

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