The 11th century old stepwell Rani-ki-Vav at Gujarat’s Patan and the picturesque Great Himalayan National Park in Kullu in Himachal Pradesh are set to get UNESCO’s World Heritage status.
Sources in the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) said the Queen’s Stepwell or ‘Rani-Ki-Vav’ and Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) are likely to be declared as World Heritage property under cultural and natural heritage categories respectively, in the ongoing 38th World Heritage Session at Qatar Thursday.
The World Heritage tag means the two sites will have access to global fund and assistance besides leading to a rise in tourism and increased revenues for the country.
Spread over an area of 2,850sq km and home to important gene pool of western Himalayan flora and fauna, GHNP is a major source of water with four major rivulets — Tirthan, Sainj, Jiwa Nal, and Parvati — originating from the glaciers in the Park.
In its document, UNESCO has praised GHNP’s diversity noting that “around 17 per cent of GHNP is under forests. A total of 832 plant species belonging to 427 genera and 128 families of higher plants have been recorded within the Park.
“The Park falls within one of the globally important Endemic Bird Areas and is home to 183 bird species, 31 mammal species, including the snow leopard, Asiatic black bear, Himalayan brown bear, Grey Goral and Himalayan Musk Deer are found here.”
likewise, UNESCO has recognised Rani-Ki-Vav as an exceptional example of utilising ground water resources in a single component and water management system as it illustrates the exceptional capacity to break large built spaces into smaller volumes following ideal aesthetic proportions.
Marking the zenith in the evolution of stepwells in India, Rani Ka Vav is a queen of all stepwells in the country and is particularly large and complex example of a stepwell with seven storey of ornamented panels of sculptures representing Maru-Gurjara architecture.
Rani Udayamati commissioned the stepwell in 1063 in the memory of her husband King Bhimdev I of the Solanki dynasty. The vav or stepwell was later flooded by the nearby Saraswati River and silted over until the late 1980s, when it was excavated by the ASI with the carvings found in pristine condition.