Maha's Unesco heritage label dreams for Shivaji forts stumble on tech hurdles

At its peak, the Maratha empire extended from India’s Northwest to the deep South, with a network of forts across this swathe.

- Vrinda Tulsian

In January 2024, India said it would seek Unesco World Heritage status for a network of 12 forts associated with Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the founder of the empire. But that plan has hit a hurdle with the advisory body vetting applications pointing to gaps in “management, documentation, and impact assessment” in India’s submission, highlighting a problem that isn’t new to a country that has a rich history, but which hasn't done a great job of documenting this or preserving historical structures.

ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites), the Paris-based advisory body to Unseco which vets all the nominees, has recommended deferring India’s entry, titled “Maratha Military Landscapes” because “it fails to convincingly demonstrate how the dozen geographically scattered forts functioned as an integrated military defense system.” HT has seen a copy of the assessment.