of the Indian Union. In 1982, grazing was banned in the park, leading to violent clashes between local farmers and the government. World Heritage Site To be included on the World Heritage List, sites must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of ten selection criteria. These criteria are explained in the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention which, besides the text of the convention, is the main working tool on World Heritage. The criteria are regularly revised by the committee to reflect the evolution of the World Heritage concept itself. The UNESCO convention for listing goes on to explain the criteria the selection of Keoladeo Ghana National Park as a World Heritage Site under the Natural Criteria iv of Operational Guidelines 2002 and the description which follows is that the park is a "Habitat of rare and endangered species. The park is a wetland of international importance for migratory waterfowl. It is the wintering ground for the rare Siberian crane and habitat for large numbers of resident nesting birds". According to the revised Operational Guidelines of 2005, the park falls under Criteria (x) which states that to be conferred the status of World Heritage, the site should "contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-site conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation". Geography Keoladeo National Park is south-east of Bharatpur and west of Agra. It is spread over approx . One third of the Keoladeo National Park is wetland with mounds, dykes, and open water with or without submerged or emergent plants. The uplands have grasslands with tall grass species together with scattered trees and shrubs present in varying density. A similar habitat with short grasses, such as Cynodon dactylon and Dichanthium annulatum also exists. Woodlands with thickets of huge Kadam trees (Neolamarckia cadamba) are distributed in scattered pockets. The park’s flora consists of 379 species of flowering plants of which 96 are wetland species. The wetland is a part of the Indo-Gangetic Great Plains. Water remains only in some depressions. This alternate wetting and drying helps to maintain the ecology of the freshwater swamp, ideal for water-fowl and resident water birds. Arrangement to pump water from deep tube wells to fill small depressions to save seeds, spores and other aquatic life also exist.