Western Ghats at a Glance

The Western Ghats or Sahyadri is a mountain range that runs parallel to the western coast of the Indian peninsula, located entirely in India. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the eight “hottest hotspots” of biological diversity in the world.It is sometimes called the Great Escarpment of IndiaThe Western Ghats form one of the four watersheds of India, feeding the perennial rivers of India. The range starts near the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra, south of the Tapti river, and runs approximately 1,600 km (990 mi) through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu ending at Kanyakumari, at the southern tip of India.

• The major river systems originating in the Western Ghats include Godavari, Kaveri, Krishna, Thamiraparani, and Tungabhadra.
  Majority of streams draining the Western Ghats join these rivers and carry a large volume of water during the monsoon months.
• These rivers flow to the east due to the gradient of the land and drain out into the Bay of Bengal.
• Major tributaries include Bhadra, Bhavani, Bhima, Malaprabha, Ghataprabha, Hemavathi and Kabini.
• Periyar, Bharathappuzha, Netravati, Sharavathi, Mandovi and Zuari rivers flow westwards towards the Western Ghats, draining into the Arabian Sea and are fast-moving, owing to the steeper gradient.
• Western Ghats support “the single largest population of endangered Asian elephants and vulnerable Indian bison.
  The Western Ghats block south-west monsoon winds from reaching the Deccan Plateau.
• Karnataka Receives more rainfall in monsoon due to the Western Ghats.
• Micrixalus commonly known as dancing frogs, tropical frogs, and torrent frogs, is a genus of frogs from that are endemic to the Western Ghats in India.

A Report termed western ghats as ‘under threat’.

According to a report ‘Protecting people through nature,’ prepared by the World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the western ghats is threatened by harmful industrial activities. The harmful industrial activities include oil and gas exploration and extraction, mining, illegal logging and large-scale constructions.
Report Highlights
Three of the seven such Indian sites — Manas Wildlife Sanctuary, Sundarbans, and the serial sites of Western Ghats — have been listed as being under threat.
On the Western Ghats, the report says the sites are facing “extractive threats” in the form of “oil and gas concessions” and “mines and mining concessions.”
The Manas Wildlife Sanctuary faces unsustainable water use whereas Sundarbans has issues related to water management.
The survey estimates that 11 million people directly depend on the World Heritage Sites for food, water, shelter, and medicine.

About WWF

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961, working in the field of the wilderness preservation, and the reduction of humanity’s footprint on the environment.
Headquarters: Gland, Vaud, Switzerland.

• President: Yolanda Kakabadse
• WWF’s giant panda logo originated from a panda named Chi Chi.
• WWF also publishes the Living Planet Index (an indicator of the state of global biological diversity, based on trends invertebrate populations of

species from around the world.) in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London.
Global Programme Framework (GPF) was also started by WWF in 2008 to protect the environment in various regions in The world.
Other Campaigns of WWF are

1.) Debt-for-Nature Swap 2.Earth Hour 3.Healthy Grown 4.Marine Stewardship Council

About IUCN

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.

• IUCN has widened its focus beyond conservation ecology and now incorporates issues related to gender equality, poverty alleviation and sustainable business in its projects.
• The organization is best known to the wider public for compiling and publishing the IUCN Red List, which assesses the conservation status of biological species (both flora and fauna ) worldwide.
• IUCN itself was eventually accredited with six UN organizations.
  IUCN was one of the few NGOs formally involved in the preparations of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm, 1972). The Stockholm Conference eventually led to three new international conventions, with IUCN involved in their drafting and implementation:

1.Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972). IUCN provides technical evaluations and monitoring

2.CITES- the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (1974) IUCN is a signatory party and the CITES Secretariat was originally lodged with IUCN

3.Ramsar Convention – Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (1975). The secretariat is still administered from IUCN’s headquarters.

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