Decision 38 COM 7B.66

Keoladeo National Park (N 340) (India)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC-14/38.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decision 36 COM 7B.18, adopted at its 36th session (Saint-Petersburg, 2012),
3. Welcomes the continuing efforts of the State Party to replenish the water regime within the property’s wetland system, and in that regard notes with appreciation the completion of the Govardhan Drain project;
4. Encourages the State Party to continue ecological monitoring programmes of satellite wetlands to ensure that these continue to perform their critical supporting role in maintaining the Outstanding Universal Value of the property, and requests the State Party to provide to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2015:
   1. clear time series data on water flows to the property from all relevant projects in order to demonstrate whether the minimum of 550 million cubic feet (mcft) of water per annum required to sustain the property’s wetland values, as recommended by the 2008 joint World Heritage Centre/IUCN reactive monitoring mission, is being achieved,
   2. clear and accurate data and analyses of bird counts, including detailed information on methodologies used, in order to demonstrate the sustained recovery of bird populations,
   3. an electronic and three printed copies of the draft revised management plan for review by the World Heritage Centre and IUCN,
   4. further information on development in the immediate vicinity of the property, including information on how development is being regulated to avoid negative impacts on the property’s Outstanding Universal Value;
5. Also welcomes the reported participation of local communities in various aspects of management of the property, and urges the State Party to ensure that the control of invasive species is keeping pace with their dispersal under changing conditions of water supply;
6. Also requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2015, an updated report, including a 1-page executive summary, on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 40th session in 2016. .