User:Nivetha M/Sandbox

WESTERN GHATS IN WORLD HERITAGE LIST

The UNESCO World Heritage Sites are well known places like, buildings, cities, forests, mountains or monuments etc. They are listed by the UNESCO as of extraordinary cultural or physical importance.

A cluster of 39 sites spread over 7,953.15 sq km the Western Ghats will now be inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list. These include tiger reserves, national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserved forests in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Kerala leads with 20 sites being inscribed in the heritage list followed by Karnataka with ten, Tamil Nadu – five and Maharashtra four.

Older than the Himalayas, the Western Ghats are the treasure trove of biodiversity. In fact they are recognized as one of the eight global hot-spots harbouring a wealth of a wealth of flora and fauna. The western Ghats which begins at Dangs in Gujarat, run through the western parts of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and the highlands of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, before ending near Kanyakumari.

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 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 Niligri tahr. Out of the 179 species of amphibians found in the Habitat change, over-exploitation, pollution and climate change are the principal pressures causing biodiversity loss.

The need to protect the ecology of the Western Ghats can hardly be over emphasized.