The six Mughal Gardens include Nishat, Shalimar, Cheshmashahi, Pari Mahal, Achabal and Veerinag

One of the most beautiful tourist attractions in Kashmir valley, the six Mughal Gardens might be declared as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO as the J&K administration is preparing a dossier to empanel them in the UN agency’s list, an ANI report carried by NDTV has said.

The six Mughal Gardens include Nishat, Shalimar, Cheshmashahi, Pari Mahal, Achabal and Veerinag. The report said that the new administration of J&K under Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha had recently issued orders on the upgradation of restoration work of the six Mughal Gardens.

According to the Director Department of Floriculture Farooq Ahmad Rather, the dossier is being prepared by the Jammu and Kashmir administration along with a consultation team. The dossier will be presented to UNESCO soon.

“With the help of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) survey experts of UNESCO visited the valley to see the heritage value of Mughal gardens. Later in 2011, six of these gardens were in the tentative list of Heritage sites presented by UNESCO,” Rather said.

He further said that the World’s Heritage Site title for the Gardens will help boost the tourism in the valley which has seen a downfall first due to curfew after abrogation of Article 370 and second after the lockdown.

“After the historical Mughal garden makes it to the UNESCO's heritage site list, it will attract a lot of tourists. Eventually, this will boost the tourism industry here,” he said, according to the report.

Locals of Kashmir Valley also appreciated the move taken by the administration. A local, Niyaz Ahmad Bhat, said, “Getting consideration from UNESCO will help in boosting the economy in Srinagar.”

Another local, Mohamad Ayoub said, “These gardens should be given UNESCO's consideration. We are proud of our culture.”

The report also quoted a tourist named Gopinath Tiwari saying, “It will be good for the people here if Heritage Mughal garden gets UNESCO''s consideration.”