On July 15, a souvenir sheet dedicated to the Putorana Plateau was put into postal circulation in the UNESCO World Heritage Site series

Russia has been a member state of UNESCO since April 21 of 1954. To date, our country has 21 cultural and 11 natural World Heritage sites. Since 2010, the Putorana Plateau has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List as an area with unique Arctic ecosystems through which the reindeer migration is taking place. It is an elevated plain located in the north-west of the Central Siberian Plateau, south of the Taimyr Peninsula. The area of the Putorana plateau is 250.000 km2. The maximum height is 1701 m (Kamen Mountains).

The Putorana Plateau is a heavily dissected mountain range in the northwestern part of the Central Siberian Plateau, located in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. It was formed resulting from the eruption of a massive volcano approximately 250 million years ago, which wiped out more than 70% of all life within a radius of hundreds of kilometers. After an immense amount of time, due to tectonic shifts, the plateau began to rise sharply, and faults and trapps formed across its territory. This is how the canyons appeared and the river channels were formed. The vegetation of the Putorana Plateau is characterised by distinct altitudinal zonation. The plateau lies on the boundary between the taiga and the tundra. A wide variety of mosses and lichens are the most common forms of vegetation on the Putorana Plateau.

The taiga region of the Plateau is home to brown bears, moose, wolves, deer, sables, rock capercaillies and others. Stoats and wolverines have made the forest-tundra their home. Partridges nest in the tundra, whilst the golsty altitudinal belt is home to an abundance of rock rabbits. The plateau is crossed by the migration route of the Taymyr population of wild reindeer, the largest in Eurasia. Rare and endangered bird species are found here, including the white-billed loon, the black crane, the red-breasted goose, the gyrfalcon and the white-tailed eagle.

The Putorana Plateau is the only territory on the planet where the largest endemic species of the Yenisei North - the Putorana bighorn sheep - is found. It is listed in the Russian Red Data Book. The mountain rivers of the Plateau are home to an abundance of fish: muksun, broad whitefish, taimen, Siberian grayling, Arctic char, cisco-whitefish and omul. Among the amphibians, the Siberian salamander is available here.

The postage stamp provides an image of the Great Irkinda Waterfall, on the cliff there is a Putoran bighorn sheep; the margins feature the area surrounding the Nature Reserve with its typical flora and fauna.

In addition to the issue of the souvenir sheet, JSC Marka produced First Day Covers and special cancels for Moscow and Norilsk of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, as well as a souvenir set in an illustrated cover with a souvenir sheet, a label and a First Day Cover with a cancel for Norilsk of the Krasnoyarsk Territory inside.


Design Artists: A. Kradyshev and M. Bodrova.
Face value: 250 rubles.
Souvenir sheet size: 95×65 mm, stamp size in the souvenir sheet: 65×32.5 mm.
Quantity: 18 thousand souvenir sheets.

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