UNESCO has asked the Government of India to submit a “risk-preparedness strategy” for Majuli, the world’s largest inhabited river island that has been seeking recognition as a world heritage site.

The Centre, meanwhile, has submitted Majuli’s case to UNESCO again, seeking its inclusion under the “cultural landscape” category of the world heritage list. The process got expedited after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a Rajya Sabha member from Assam, called a meeting of tourism, culture and water resource department officials and asked them to speed up the formalities including getting a “risk-preparedness strategy” ready for UNESCO’s examination.

The Archaeological Survey of India, the nodal agency for nominating Indian sites to the World Heritage List, submitted its documentations relating to Majuli, and India’s other nominee, Kalka-Shimla Rail link, to the UNESCO authorities last month. Majuli’s case, incidentally, has been hanging fire since 2004 with the state failing to fulfil certain requirements aimed at protecting the island’s cultural as well as natural heritage. If selected, Majuli would become India’s first world heritage site under the ‘cultural landscape’ category.

Majuli, which had an area of 1,200 sq km in the beginning of the 20th century, has shrunk by more than half following dangerous erosion caused by Brahmaputra in whose heart it is located. A series of measures initiated through various agencies, however, have hardly yielded any result, causing anguish among residents.

On Monday, a meeting called by the satradhikars (heads) of as many as 31 Vaishnavite satras (monasteries) in the island resolved to send a delegation to New Delhi to meet the Prime Minister, President and others.