Hampi UNESCO review: experts seek parking shift, report in six weeks

A UNESCO expert team has completed a four-day review of conservation at the Group of Monuments at Hampi, the World Heritage Site in Karnataka's Vijayanagara district, and will submit its report in about six weeks, Deputy Commissioner Kavitha S Mannikeri has said. The team, led by George Abungu of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre with an expert from ICOMOS, the international council that advises UNESCO on monuments, began its visit on Saturday, October 24, 2026, and inspected sites in Hampi, Anjanadri and Anegundi. According to the deputy commissioner, the experts were satisfied with conservation work, but recommended moving vehicle parking away from the Salu Mantapa in front of the Virupaksha Temple.

Hampi was the capital of the Vijayanagara empire, and its ruined temples, bazaars, royal enclosures and water works are spread across a boulder-strewn landscape on the banks of the Tungabhadra river. The Virupaksha Temple, still a living place of worship, and the Vijaya Vittala Temple, with its stone chariot, draw pilgrims and tourists in large numbers. A World Heritage listing brings global recognition, but it also comes with obligations: the country must protect what UNESCO calls the site's "outstanding universal value", and the World Heritage Committee can review how well it does so.

This visit is part of that review. Such missions, known as reactive monitoring missions, are sent when the committee has concerns about the state of a site. Hampi has been through this before: it was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 1999 and removed in 2006, after conservation and planning steps were taken. The current concerns focus on development pressure, especially around Anjanadri hill, which tradition holds to be the birthplace of Hanuman and where the committee has asked for heritage impact assessments before any major decisions.

The parking advice may sound small, but it touches a sensitive point. The Salu Mantapa, the row of pillared pavilions along the old chariot street in front of the Virupaksha Temple, is itself part of the heritage. Parked cars and buses beside it affect both the monument and the view of the temple, and the experts themselves flagged congestion in the core zone. The experts' remark on overlapping departments points to the same issue: decisions about roads, buildings, tourism and temples are split between several central, state and district bodies.

Short-term: The district administration and heritage authorities are likely to act on parking and traffic first, since these were raised directly. Visitors may see changes to where vehicles can stop near the Virupaksha Temple.

Long-term: The team's report will feed into the World Heritage Committee's next review of Hampi. A positive report supports the site's standing; strong concerns, especially on Anjanadri, could lead to tighter conditions on new construction, more heritage impact assessments, and closer monitoring.

Who is affected: pilgrims and tourists visiting Hampi and Anjanadri; local traders, guides and transport operators who depend on visitor traffic; residents of villages within the heritage area; and the ASI, the state government and the area's management authority, which must answer the report.

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