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ABSTRACT
The World Heritage Convention accounts for over eight percent of protected areas of the world. Serial World Heritage sites bring together, under one nomination, a series of related places that demonstrate Outstanding Universal Value (OUV). There are a number of challenges in the process of serial nominations such as forging synergies between scientific, administrative and legal issues that pertain to the sites. India 's first serial nomination was the global mega-biodiversity hotspot, of Western Ghats, inscribed as a UNESCO World heritage site in 2012. The nomination and process of inscription as a natural World Heritage site spanned over 10 years with commitment shown by various agencies in maintaining the integrity as well as conserving the values of this invaluable property.
INTRODUCTION
The noble cause of protection of natural areas is driven by a desire to preserve sites with special natural values and the acceptance of moral responsibility to ensure the survival of threatened life forms. In the last 40 years, the World Heritage Convention has become the most successful international instrument to recognise the most exceptional natural places in the world. Inscription of a World Heritage site is a global recognition of a country's natural and cultural heritage and is both a matter of pride and enhanced security for the inscribed property. Thus, a site declared as World Heritage under the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, is a cultural or natural site credited with outstanding global significance.
As per the Operational Guidelines of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention for a site to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, it must have OUV and must meet one or more of the 10 criteria besides meeting conditions of integrity (for natural sites), authenticity (for cultural sites) and protection requirements. As of 2013, 981 sites have been inscribed globally by 160 States Parties. Of these, 759 are cultural, 193 natural and 29 are mixed properties.
Although nomination for inscription of a heritage site is a two step process namely nomination in Tentative List followed by the final submission of nomination dossier, the evaluation and decision is a well deliberated and lengthy process. The nomination file is evaluated by World Conservation Union in the case of natural heritage sites and also includes field inspection by...