Maratha Military Landscapes of India

Background

In 2021, the Maratha Military Landscapes of India were included in the Tentative World Heritage List. They were then picked as the official nomination from India for inscription in the UNESCO World Heritage List for the year 2024-25, as announced by the Ministry of Culture in January 2024. Maharashtra has more than 390 forts, out of which only 11 forts were selected for this list along with one fort in Tamil Nadu. These forts span across the diverse topographies of the Sahyadri Range, Deccan Plateau, Konkan Coast, and the Eastern Ghats. The Maratha military strategy that involved these forts was developed during the reign of the Maratha ruler Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in the 17th-century and continued till the Peshwa rule in the early 19th-century.

The nomination process was followed with a survey of the forts by the UNESCO team in October 2024. In February 2025, a four-member delegation from Maharashtra led by Ashish Shelar, had visited Paris to provide technical and diplomatic presentations in a bid to push the World Heritage status for these forts. During the 47th session of World Heritage Convention in July 2025, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) had recommended to defer India's entry stating that,“it fails to convincingly demonstrate how the dozen geographically scattered forts ... functioned as an integrated military defense system.” However, India's diplomatic response along with support from the international delegates, helped the nomination to be officially inscribed as a World Heritage Site.