Mountain Railways of India

• Management Systems/Management Plan (Lack of an adapted management plan; Lack of a heritage conservation unit; Absence of Buffer Zone)

Following the submission of information by third parties, the World Heritage Centre sent four letters to the State Party (26 June 2017, 11 July 2017, 18 July 2018 and 14 February 2019) concerning the deteriorating state of conservation of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR), which is part of the World Heritage property of Mountain Railways of India. The World Heritage Centre requested the State Party to verify the information received regarding: i) lack of monitoring and general maintenance; ii) serious encroachment by illegal construction; and iii) dumping of waste along the tracks.  At the time of writing this report, the State Party has not responded to any of the letters.

The UNESCO Office in New Delhi carried out a mission to Darjeeling and Kolkata (19–29 May 2018) and made the following observations:

• There appears to be no appropriate structure to care for the conservation of heritage assets and attributes that underpin the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property. Many of the principal attributes of the property’s OUV have lost important structural and/or decorative components;
• The property’s boundaries do not appear to have been properly defined, since there is currently no clear map or established buffer zone;
• The property suffers from serious encroachment by illegal construction and from waste dumping along the tracks;
• The trains and tracks are suffering from insufficient maintenance;
• Many of the station buildings, which are identified as major attributes of the OUV of the property, have lost original fabric and have seriously deteriorated since the inscription of the property on the World Heritage List and its subsequent extensions (1999, 2004 & 2008). In most cases, this is due to ill-advised “modernization” efforts compounded by lack of maintenance. The buildings of Sonada and Gayabari stations, which were damaged during riots in 2017, have not been restored.

At the time of inscription, in 1999, most of the 88-kilometre route of the DHR passed through either forest or tea garden landscapes. Currently, however, much of the DHR runs between illegally constructed houses and shops, and a lot of this encroachment is on a 20-metre corridor owned by the Northern Frontier Railway Zone and the Ministry of Road Transport. Illegal housing is so close to the railway in places that there is little or no space between units and the railway.

Additionally, DHR steam locomotives use low-grade coal instead of steam coal produced for steam locomotives, which generates ash and smoke pollution and has a negative impact on the locomotive engines.

The mission report from the UNESCO Office in New Delhi and third-party information sent to the World Heritage Centre describe significant loss of original architectural elements from railway buildings and cumulative wear and tear on the locomotives and rolling stock of the railway since inscription. This is coupled with the impact of encroachment by illegal housing and commercial development, which has significantly altered the character of the railway corridor and its surrounding landscape and threatens the OUV of the property and its character.

The issues stem from the absence of a management system with appropriate focus on priorities for protection, maintenance and conservation and the capacity to implement these. There is also a general lack of understanding of the unique management needs of narrow-gauge heritage steam railways. In this regard, lack of suitably trained staff to operate the railway constitutes an important aggravating factor.

There is an urgent need to clarify the boundaries of the property and to establish a buffer zone in order to ensure its protection, to define priorities for management and to maintain the railways’ relationship with the landscapes that each one helped to create.

It is regrettable that, between 2017 and 2019, the State Party has not responded to World Heritage Centre’s repeated requests for information regarding the lack of monitoring and general maintenance, serious encroachment by illegal construction and waste dumping along the tracks of the property. In view of these pressing issues, the Indian Railways’ initiative to set up a self-benefiting Fund-in-Trust project to elaborate the development of the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) for the property should be welcomed. The finalization and implementation of the CCMP is a crucial priority that must also include the establishment of a dedicated Conservation and Management Unit for the World Heritage property. This is in line with Committee Decision CONF 209 VIII.C.1, adopted at the time of inscription (Marrakesh, 1999), in which the Committee had already drawn the attention of the State Party to the recommendations of ICOMOS concerning: “(a) the creation of a heritage conservation unit; (b) the establishment of a buffer zone along the length of the property; and (c) the establishment of an adapted management plan”. Capacity development for all those involved in managing and running the railway and its buffer zone (once established) is also essential.

It is therefore recommended that the Committee express its concern about the damage to the property and the erosion of the attributes of its OUV, due to the lack of appropriate protection, maintenance and management since inscription.

In order to prevent further damage to the property and obtain expert advice and support, it is further recommended that the Committee request the State Party to invite a joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring mission to the property in order to assist the State Party in assessing the property’s state of conservation, identifying priorities for action and reporting on these, while also formulating a set of recommendations for the State Party aimed at preventing further erosion of the property’s OUV.