UNESCO official urges India to ratify Convention on Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage

A senior UNESCO official on Wednesday urged India to ratify the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage to safeguard its maritime heritage, which includes shipwrecks, sunken and submerged artifacts and remains of the historic sites.UNESCOs Director and Representative to Bhutan, India, Maldives and Sri Lanka, Eric Falt, also said that the Indian government is in the process of nominating the Gujarati folk tradition of garba, a dance form played during the Navratri festival, for its list of Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and offered his best wishes.

A senior UNESCO official on Wednesday urged India to ratify the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage to safeguard its maritime heritage, which includes shipwrecks, sunken and submerged artifacts, and remains of the historic sites.

UNESCO's Director and Representative to Bhutan, India, Maldives, and Sri Lanka, Eric Falt, also said that the Indian government is in the process of nominating the Gujarati folk tradition of Garba, a dance form played during the Navratri festival, for its list of 'Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage' and offered his best wishes. Speaking at the inaugural session of 'Vadnagar International Conference' that was inaugurated by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar, he praised the Centre's project to develop a National Maritime Heritage Complex at Lothal in Gujarat and added that India should further develop this vision to safeguard its maritime heritage by ratifying the 2001 Convention.

The Convention was adopted in November 2001 to create a legal framework to regulate interference with underwater cultural heritage (UCH) in international waters.

''The National Maritime Heritage Complex is projected to become a world-class complex to showcase India's rich and diverse maritime heritage, and I want to say that we at the UNESCO welcome this development,'' Falt said. ''I would like to invite the Government of India to further develop this vision to safeguard India's maritime heritage by also ratifying UNESCO 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage,'' he said. Lothal is on a tentative list of UNESCO's world heritage sites.

India benefits from an expansive coastline of more than 7,000 km and has a huge potential in terms of underwater cultural heritage, Falt said.

Research and inquiry into this aspect of heritage can contribute to the enriching understanding of the past and help generate more awareness and recognition and a need for its protection, especially in the face of rising sea levels and environmental change, he further said.

''Since 2001, the UNESCO Convention has provided an important international policy mechanism for its protection and management. The convention has already been ratified by 61 countries, and I really urge India to become a signatory. It can only be to the benefit of the country,'' he said. Falt said that as 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, Gujarat may get its first inscription as the Indian government is in the process of nominating ''the great folk tradition of garba''.

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