Today is World Heritage Day and this is the apt occasion to deliberate upon the need for making India’s holy river, Ganga, a UNESCO world heritage site. Many organisations have been requesting the State and Central Governments to prepare a scientific report on the basis of which the Ganga can be declared a world heritage site. The famous valley of flowers and Nanda Devi National Park in Uttarakhand are already a world heritage sites. It is high time that the Uttarakhand Government started the process of having this sacred river declared as a world heritage site. The World Heritage Day should be the appropriate occasion for this initiative. The UPA Government at the Centre and Congress Government of Uttarakhand should get together and prepare a comprehensive plan to make a scientific report on the basis of which the Ganga , from Gaumukh to Haridwar, can be declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Ganga and its tributaries are the lifeline of the Ganga valley which sustains forty per cent of India’s population and are the bedrock of India’s civilisation and heritage. The flora of this area also acts as a major carbon sink of Asia and has a unique climate diversity right from the upper Himalayas to the plains of Uttarakhand . The waters of the Ganga mainstream have the unique quality of remaining fresh as a result of the substances found in the bed of the sacred river, a phenomenon not found in any river of the world with a cluster of ancient religious townships and rich tradition of fairs and festivals, the Himalayan and sub-Himalayan surroundings of the Ganga are among the richest fountainhead of the culture of mankind. Lokesh Ohri, co-convener of the Dehradun chapter and co-convener of the Uttarakhand State chapter of INTACH, says a roadmap needs to be developed for sustainable economic and cultural development in this ecologically and culturally significant region.