Which of the following sites in Madhya Pradesh is recognized as a 'World Heritage Site'?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — B, the Sanchi Stupa. The 'Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi', in Raisen district, were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1989. Madhya Pradesh has exactly three inscribed World Heritage properties — the Khajuraho Group of Monuments (1986), the Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi (1989) and the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka (2003) — and Sanchi is the only one of the four names offered here. The site is valued as the most complete surviving ensemble of early Buddhist stupas, pillars, monasteries and temples, in continuous use from the third century BCE to the twelfth century CE.

Why the other options are wrong — (c) A tiger reserve in Narmadapuram district and a serious natural-heritage candidate that figures on India's Tentative List, but it is not inscribed. India's natural World Heritage properties are elsewhere — Kaziranga, Manas, Sundarbans, Keoladeo, Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers, Great Himalayan National Park and the Western Ghats.  (d) The unfinished eleventh-century Shiva temple at Bhojpur near Bhopal, built under the Paramara king Bhoja and famous for one of the largest lingas in India, is likewise a Tentative List entry — architecturally extraordinary, but not an inscribed World Heritage Site.

Concept: World Heritage status is conferred under the 1972 UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The route has two steps: a State Party first places a property on its own Tentative List, and only a property already on that list can be formally nominated; the World Heritage Committee then decides on the basis of Outstanding Universal Value against ten criteria (i–vi cultural, vii–x natural). In India, cultural nominations are steered by the Archaeological Survey of India and natural ones by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Properties that meet both cultural and natural criteria are 'mixed' — Khangchendzonga National Park is India's only one.

State PCS 2026 Q93 — Madhya Pradesh GK PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2026 Q93 — Madhya Pradesh GK PYQ with Answer