Chandigarh, Sikkim park get heritage tag

Sunday’s approval is besides the archaeological site of Nalanda Mahavihara (Nalanda University) in Bihar entering the list at the 40th session of The World Heritage Committee meeting in Istanbul.

The meeting had resumed for a day on Sunday, after being suspended a day earlier due to a failed coup bid in Turkey which claimed over 260 lives.

The Paris-based body listed Franco-Swiss architect Le Corbusier’s works — including the Indian city of Chandigarh which he planned in the 1950s — among its World Heritage Sites. 

It said the 17 sites spread over seven countries are a ‘testimonial to the invention of a new architectural language that made a break with the past’. In another major recognition, Sikkim’s Khangchendzonga National Park — home to the world’s third highest peak, Mount Khangchendzonga— made it to the list. 

The Khangchendzonga National Park includes a unique diversity of plains, valleys, lakes, glaciers and spectacular, snow-capped mountains covered with ancient forests. Mythological stories are associated with this mountain and with a great number of natural elements that are the object of worship by the indigenous people of Sikkim.