VIII.11 Manas Wildlife Sanctuary (India)
The Deputy Inspector General for Wildlife of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) in New Delhi, in a letter of 26 September 2000 addressed to the Charge d'Affairs of the Permanent Delegation of India to UNESCO suggested that the proposed UNESCO World Heritage Centre mission to Manas be undertaken in May 2001. The Deputy Inspector General for Wildlife also presented a paper at the IUCN/Centre Workshop in Amman in which he emphasised the fact that the inclusion of Manas in the List of World Heritage in Danger has influenced State and Central Government decision to invest funds to rehabilitate the Sanctuary. IUCN observed that this is another example of a site where the inclusion of the site in the List of World Heritage in Danger resulted in the elaboration of a rehabilitation plan and its execution with partial support from the World Heritage Fund.
The Committee recommended that the Centre/IUCN mission to review progress in the implementation of the rehabilitation plan adopted in 1997 and partly financed by grants amounting to US$ 165,000 from the World Heritage Fund be undertaken in May 2001 as proposed by the State Party, and a report submitted to the twenty-fifth ordinary session of the Bureau in 2001. The Committee urged the Centre and IUCN to use all available information to plan the site visit, particularly to assess the impacts of the rehabilitation measures designed to minimize poaching threats to the rhinos in Manas. The Committee retained the site in the List of World Heritage in Danger.