India, Oct. 5 -- India's UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List has reached 78 entries after five additions announced on September 29: Bagh Cave Paintings, the Group of Temples of the Chambal Valley, Udaigiri Caves, Ginnorgarh Fort and the India-South Africa proposal, Sites of Satyagraha. The UNESCO profile for India shows the full list.

It is tempting to read that number as a conservation milestone. It is not. A Tentative List entry is not World Heritage status and obliges no one to protect anything new. The gap matters most where heritage meets biodiversity, infrastructure, security and Indigenous rights, as it does in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Colonial Penal Settlement of Andaman Islands and Nicobarese Cultural Continuity ent...