SHILLONG, Jan 27: If all goes well, three of Garo Hills’ much-treasured biodiversity-rich areas — Nokrek National Park, Balpakram National Park and Siju Wildlife Sanctuary — will find spots in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites List.
Meghalaya Forests and Environment department, with the assistance of the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, is preparing a dossier for the inscription of biodiversity-rich areas in South Gao Hills and West Garo Hills districts, which will be called Garo Hills Conservation Area (GHCA) to be included on the UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites list.
Informing this here on Wednesday, Forest and Environment Minister, James Sangma, said that the proposed GHCA will consist of three legally designated protected areas — Nokrek National Park (47.48 square kilometre), Balpakram National Park (162.08 square kilometre) and Siju Wildlife Sanctuary (5.18 square kilometre).
The buffer zone of the proposed GHCA will consist of Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs) of these protected areas, Rewak and Emangiri reserved forests and certain private/community owned areas falling between the aforementioned reserved forests and ESZs.
The minister exuded confidence that if given such recognition, these sites will upscale the tourism potential of the state.
“Inscription of a property on the World Heritage List provides worldwide recognition and publicity to the state and it will help in enhancing tourism potential with assistance from national and international organisations such as the World Heritage Fund,” the minister said.