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WESTERN GHATS



 WESTERN GHATS

A BIO-DIVERSITY HOTSPOT

The Western Ghats or Sahyadri are a mountain range parallel to the western coast of India. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

It is a bio-diversity hotspot that contains a large proportion of the country's plant and animals species; many of which are only found here and nowhere else in the world.

Older than the Himalayas, the Western Ghats are the treasure trove of bio-diversity. In fact, they are recognized as one of the eight global hot-spots harboring a wealth of flora and fauna.

Lion-tailed Macaque

A total of thirty nine properties including national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserve forests were designated as world heritage sites - twenty in Kerala, ten in Karnataka, five in Tamil Nadu and four in Maharashtra.

Nilgiri flycatcher


The range starts near the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra,  south of Tapti river, and runs approximately 1,600 km (990miles) through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu ending at Kanyakumari, at the southern tip of India.

Malabar Parakeet

These hills cover 160,000 sq.km and form the catchment area for complex riverine drainage systems that drain almost 40% of India.

The Ghats are currently known to have more than 5,000 plant and 140 mammal species, 16 of which are endemic, i,e. found in that area alone, notably, among these being the lion-tailed Macaque and the Nilgiri Tahr.

Nilgiri Tahr

Out of the 179 species of amphibians found in Western Ghats, 138 are endemic to the region. It has 508 bird species, 16 of which are endemic, including the Nilgiri flycatcher and the Malabar Parakeet.

The western Ghats are considered ecologically sensitive regions with nearly 52 species moving one step closer to extinction.

Habitat change, over-exploitation, pollution and climate change are the main pressures causing bio-diversity loss. It is our duty to take all possible efforts to protect the ecology of the Western Ghats. 
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