GUWAHATI, Nov 7: A dialogue on the theme, ‘Conservation beyond borders – Heritage as a connecting link in the Eastern Himalayas’, was held during the 7th edition of the Eastern Himalayan Naturenomics Forum, organized here in Assam by the Balipara Foundation on Wednesday.
The dialogue was aimed at incorporating important concepts of nature and culture to provide insight into ecological processes and localized contexts.
During the session, which was participated in by Assam PCCF Arvind Madhav Singh along with Rita Banerjee from GreenHub, Shiela Bora from INTACH (Assam Chapter), and Dr Bibhuti Lahkar from Aaranyak, the participants learned about the process of world heritage site nomination.
They discussed issues pertaining to best practices from all unique natural sites of the Eastern Himalayas and bringing out the cultural importance as well as the ecological values of such sites.
The sites include the Manas National Park, the Kaziranga National Park and the Majuli cultural landscape in Assam, the Garo Hills conservation area in Meghalaya, and others.
At present, there are two world heritage sites under the ‘natural’ category in the Northeast, out of seven sites in India, whereas there are no world heritage sites under the ‘cultural’ category in the region.
The session was aimed at working on the many potential sites in the Northeast region for nomination to India’s tentative list of world heritage sites.
