In a proud moment for India's cultural heritage preservation efforts, UNESCO has added three Indian sites to its prestigious World Heritage List, bringing the country's total to 45 — the sixth highest in the world.
The newly inscribed sites are: the ancient stepwells (vavs) of Gujarat, representing an extraordinary tradition of subterranean water architecture spanning over 1,500 years; the living root bridges of Meghalaya, created by the Khasi and Jaintia peoples by training the aerial roots of rubber trees across rivers; and the marine biodiversity hotspot of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
"These inscriptions recognize the extraordinary diversity of India's cultural and natural heritage," said Union Culture Minister G. Kishan Reddy. "Each of these sites tells a unique story about human ingenuity and our relationship with the natural world."
The living root bridges, in particular, garnered significant international attention for representing what UNESCO described as "a remarkable example of sustainable indigenous engineering that offers lessons for contemporary ecological challenges."
