NEW DELHI, DEC 24: Unesco's World Heritage List this year does not include any Indian site although it contains the highest number of 61 such sites across the globe.Though no Indian historical site has been included in the past seven years, UNESCO sources maintain that there has been no discrimination against India in selecting the sites.Last year, UNESCO did put Darjeeling Himalayan Railway on the World Heritage List. But that was not a historical site.The sources said the 24th Annual Meeting of the World Heritage Committee at Australia selected 61 sites spread over 30 countries, taking the total number of World Heritage Sites to 690 so far.A senior official at UNESCO's India office, Prithviraj Pereira, said that at the annual meeting UNESCO considered recommendations for entry from many countries. "Unfortunately no nomination from South Asia was selected for inclusion on the World Heritage Site list," he said, refusing to comment on reasons for rejecting entries from India.This year five sites from Spain and four each from Belgium and China have been selected as World Heritage Site while Azerbaizan, Malaysia, Nicaragua and Surinam have found a place in the list for the first time.The overall list has 22 sites in India which includes an industrial heritage-the Darjeeling Himalayan Railways. The last historical heritage site in India to be included in the list was Humayun's Tomb and Qutab Minar in Delhi in 1993.On India's failure to get its historical sites includedin the World Heritage List, the Director General of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Komal Anand said, "We presented the sites with full preparation. We don't know if there were any shortcomings anywhere."Asked if there was any lobbying in the selection process, she said the entire exercise was a bit too secretive which made it difficult to know where India lagged behind.On UNESCO's offer to develop Indian sites to make themacceptable for inclusion in the World Heritage Site list, she said, "though we have inhouse expertise, still we accepted the offer."Pereira on the other hand said the charges ofdiscrimination in selection could not be accepted as the World Heritage Treaty was signed in 1972 by 161 countries and 122 of them find a place on the list."Had there been (any) discrimination, the list would nothave included sites from India, Sri Lanka or Nepal," he said.Stating that in an era of "packaging" what was important was how something was presented, he said good showcasing by European countries catch the fancy of the Heritage Committee.He said the National Rail Museum of India presented the Darjeeling Hill Railways beautifully and it was one of the only two World Heritage railway sites.
