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World Heritage Day is celebrated every year on April 18. The day is also known as the International Day for Monuments and Sites. The day is celebrated to raise the awareness about the diversity of cultural heritage, monuments, its relevance, how vulnerable it can be and what are the needs and benefits of its conservation. On this day different types of activities, including visits to monuments and heritage sites, conferences are organised. 

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) in 1982 announced April 18 as the World Heritage Day. Every year, ICOMOS proposes a theme for the celebrations and activities which are to be organised on the World Heritage Day. In 2019, the theme is Rural Landscapes. This theme is linked to the theme of the 2019 ICOMOS Scientific Symposium on Rural heritage which is to take place in October in Marrakesh, Morocco. 

Principles concerning rural landscapes as heritage adopted by the ICOMOS General Assembly in 2017. Rural landscapes are multifunctional resources. ICOMOS defined rural landscapes as terrestrial and aquatic areas co-produced by human-nature interaction. These areas are used for the production of food and other renewable natural resources, via agriculture, animal husbandry and pastoralism, fishing and aquaculture, forestry, wild food gathering, hunting, and extraction of other resources, such as salt.

Meanwhile, the theme of the World Heritage Day 2018 was “Heritage for Generations” which emphasis on inter-generational transfer of knowledge. As of 2018, India has 36 World Heritage Sites including Western Ghats, Sundarbans National Park, Historic City of Ahmadabad, Taj Mahal in Agra, Nalanda University, Mahabodhi Temple in Bihar and Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh. (latestly.com)