The Western Ghats of India have made it to the UNESCO World Heritage List, finally. The mountain chain was included in the list together with three other natural and four cultural properties, at a meeting of the World Heritage Committee held in St Petersburg, Russia, on Sunday night.
‘Older than the Himalaya mountains, the mountain chain of the Western Ghats represents geomorphic features of immense importance with unique biophysical and ecological processes. The site’s high montane forest ecosystems influence the Indian monsoon weather pattern. Moderating the tropical climate of the region, it presents one of the best examples of the monsoon system in the planet,’ a statement from UNESCO said. ‘The site (Western Ghats) also has an exceptionally high level of biological diversity and endemism. It is recognised as one of the world’s eight “hottest hotspots” of biological diversity. The forests of the site include some of the best representatives of non-equatorial tropical evergreen forests anywhere and are home to at least 325 globally threatened flora, fauna, bird, amphibian, reptile and fish species,’ the statement read.
The Western Ghats was inscribed under criteria 9 and 10 of the Operational Guidelines of the World Heritage Convention. Indian ecologists and wildlife experts are elated at the inclusion of the site in the protected list even though many said (see quotes) that India has enough laws to protect the site if it wanted to. “The WII has been working to get the Western Ghats inscribed on the list for the last six years. We conducted extensive research and collected lots of documents. A delegation from the WII was present in Russia before the Heritage Site Committee and now, the inscription has been done, finally,” said P.R. Sinha, director of the Wildlife Society of India, Dehradun.
The inclusion of the ghats in the heritage list gives it the highest level of protection and prevents any tampering by State or other agencies. However, to ensure this doesn’t happen, the greatest vigilance is essential. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), when it recommended the site to UNESCO had mentioned the need for strict and constant monitoring. The six-year- long campaign for inscription may have ended but India needs extensive work to keep the tag intact.
“All heritage sites need constant monitoring to ensure that the site retains the values for which it was inscribed. The status of the Western Ghats will now be evaluated by international experts periodically. To keep the status is a collective responsibility for us as a country to protect the Western Ghats. I expect this to boost efforts for protection by the government and others,” Mr Sinha said. The Western Ghats is spread over 8,000 sq km along the west coast of India, covering parts of the states of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat.