The Ministry of Culture introduced on Monday that India is nominating the ‘Maratha Military Landscape’ for inclusion within the UNESCO World Heritage List for the 2024-25 cycle, with a complete of 12 parts included on this nomination.

In its official assertion, the Culture Ministry stated that the ‘Maratha Military Landscapes’ represents extraordinary fortification and navy system envisioned by the Maratha rulers, showcasing the colourful historical past of India.

The twelve parts of this nomination are — Salher fort, Shivneri fort, Lohgad, Khanderi fort, Raigad, Rajgad, Pratapgad, Suvarnadurg, Panhala fort, Vijay durg, and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra, and Gingee fort in Tamil Nadu, it stated in a press release.

Officials from the ministry stated that these twelve parts are distributed throughout numerous geographical and physiographic areas and so they shocase the strategic navy powers of the Maratha rule in historic India.

The ‘Maratha Military Landscapes of India’, which developed between seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, “represent an extraordinary fortification and military system envisioned by the Maratha rulers”, the assertion stated.

The assertion additional stated, “This extraordinary network of forts, varying in hierarchies, scales and typological features, is a result of integrating the landscape, terrain and physiographic characteristics distinctive to the Sahyadri mountain ranges, the Konkan Coast, Deccan Plateau and the Eastern Ghats in the Indian Peninsula.”

However, this isn’t the primary time that the Maratha Military Landscape has been thought-about for nomination, because it was additionally included within the Tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2021, the assertion stated.

There are greater than 390 forts in Maharashtra, out of which solely 12 forts are chosen underneath the ‘Maratha Military Landscapes of India’, and eight of those forts are protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

The forts underneath ASI are Shivneri fort, Lohgad, Raigad, Suvarnadurg, Panhala fort, Vijaydurg, Sindhudurg and Gingee fort; whereas Salher fort, Rajgad, Khanderi fort and Pratapgarh are protected by the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, authorities of Maharashtra, the assertion stated.

(With inputs from PTI)