Three Indian Sites Join UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative List: Andaman Volcanoes and Sirpur
India's Permanent Delegation to UNESCO announced on 20 October 2026 that three Indian sites have been added to the Tentative List of the World Heritage Convention. The Tentative List is the first step a site must take before it can be nominated for World Heritage status.
Karst-Mud-Volcano Complex of Baratang (Andaman and Nicobar Islands): about 299.57 sq km on the Great Andaman chain, with limestone caves and active mud volcanoes.
Andaman Subduction Volcanoes (Andaman and Nicobar Islands): Barren Island, India's only active volcano, and Narcondam Island, a dormant volcano. Both are protected areas.
Sirpur Cultural and Archaeological Landscape (Chhattisgarh): Hindu, Buddhist and Jain monuments from the 5th to the 12th century CE on the banks of the Mahanadi river, in Mahasamund district.
India now has 45 World Heritage Sites (37 cultural, 7 natural, 1 mixed) and ranks sixth in the world by number of sites.
UNESCO World Heritage Convention, 1972
The World Heritage Convention is an international treaty under which countries agree to identify and protect places of "Outstanding Universal Value", meaning places so important that they belong to all of humanity. The best of these places go on the World Heritage List. Before any place can be put forward for this list, the country must first put it on its Tentative List, a kind of waiting list or "inventory" of possible future nominations.
The three new sites are now on India's Tentative List. This does not make them World Heritage Sites yet; it only makes them eligible for a future nomination.
Mud Volcanoes: How the Earth Erupts Mud
A mud volcano is a small hill or cone that throws out mud, water and gas instead of hot lava. The mud comes from soft rock layers a few kilometres below the ground, where gas and water are trapped under high pressure. When cracks open up, this pressure pushes the mixture to the surface, a bit like a soda bottle fizzing out when you open it after shaking it. Mud volcanoes are usually cool to the touch and are not linked to molten rock.
The Karst-Mud-Volcano Complex of Baratang, covering about 299.57 sq km, has been placed on UNESCO's Tentative List for its rare mix of active mud volcanoes and limestone caves. It could become one of the very few protected landscapes in the world that combine both features.
Subduction Zones and Volcanic Arcs
A subduction zone is a place where one of the Earth's huge tectonic plates slides down under another plate and sinks into the hot layer below. As the sinking plate goes deep, it causes rock above it to melt, and this melted rock rises to form a line of volcanoes called a volcanic arc. Most of the world's explosive volcanoes and biggest earthquakes happen at subduction zones.
Barren and Narcondam have been placed on the Tentative List together as the "Andaman Subduction Volcanoes". They are living examples of how an island arc forms where the Indian plate dives under the Burma microplate.
Sirpur: Ancient Temple Town of Chhattisgarh
Sirpur is a village on the banks of the Mahanadi river in Mahasamund district of Chhattisgarh, about 78 km from Raipur. About 1,400 years ago it was Shripura, the capital of an ancient kingdom called Dakshina Kosala (South Kosala). Excavations here have revealed Hindu temples, Buddhist monasteries, Jain shrines, a market and a bath house, built between roughly the 5th and 12th centuries CE. It is one of the best places in India to see how different religions lived side by side in one ancient city.
Sirpur has been placed on UNESCO's Tentative List as the "Sirpur Cultural and Archaeological Landscape". This recognises it not as a single temple but as a whole ancient city where Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions grew together.
- Announcement: 20 October 2026, by India's Permanent Delegation to UNESCO
- Three new Tentative List sites: Karst-Mud-Volcano Complex of Baratang; Andaman Subduction Volcanoes (Barren and Narcondam); Sirpur Cultural and Archaeological Landscape
- Baratang complex: about 299.57 sq km; proposed cave portion about 1 sq km
- Barren Island: about 138 km from Sri Vijaya Puram; India's only active volcano
- Narcondam Island: about 240 km from the capital; rises to about 710 m
- Sirpur: Mahasamund district, about 78 km from Raipur; monuments from the 5th to 12th centuries CE
- India's World Heritage Sites: 45 (37 cultural, 7 natural, 1 mixed); sixth in the world
- World Heritage Convention: adopted 1972; India ratified in 1977