Western Ghats Mountain Ranges | UNESCO Sites Western Ghats| Western Ghats Total Length| Peaks of Western Ghats| Western Ghats Formation | Western Ghats UPSC
The Western Ghats form India’s Longest Mountains and Forest Strech which almost covers 1600kms from Gujarat to Kerala and also ends in Tamilnadu. There is a Place called Dindigul in Tamilnadu where both Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats meet.
Though protecting a place of 180,000 km2, or simply below 6 percentage of the land region of India, the Western Ghats comprise greater than 30 percent of all plants, fish, herpetofauna, birds, and mammals species located in India.
Many species are endemic, including the Nilgiri tahr (Hemitragus hylocrius) and the lion-tailed macaque (Macaca silenus). In fact, 50 percent of India’s amphibians and sixty-seven percentage of fish species are endemic to this location.
The location has a magnificent assemblage of huge mammals – around 30 percentage of the world’s Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) populace and 17 percentage of the world’s present tigers (Panthera tigris) name this region their home. Protection for those is prolonged thru numerous nationally good-sized natural world sanctuaries, tiger reserves, and countrywide parks
This is usually recognized as a place where there is biological diversity, Different kinds of species, Lakes formed in between the mountain ranges, The Western Ghat is Popularly Known as Sahayadri in India. It was given UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2002.
Many Birds, Mammals, Reptiles, and a wide variety of Bio-Diversity are found in Sahayadri, Also Water Bodies and Mountain Peaks after the Himalayas are in the Western Ghats.
Geography
The Western Ghats and The Eastern Ghats of India are estimated to be formed about 150 Million Years ago, Due to Many Biological Changes which have happened to the earth like Techtonic Pressures, Volcanic Eruptions, and Sea Submerging Pressure, etc.
It has Good Flaura and Fauna. One of the places where there is abundant Greenary and Many Rivers was formed from the Mountain Ranges of Sahayadri and also Climate and Rainfall will be very cool in these Mountain Ranges. The Hills of Western Ghats Covers about 1,60,000 Sq Km area of India.
Western Ghats Mountain Ranges and Water Spots
The Western Ghats form one of the Four Water Bodies. The Rivers which are formed from the water bodies of Sahayadri are the Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri, Tungabhadra, and Kaveri Rivers.
The Rivers flow towards the east due to Land diversities and finally mix into the Bay of Bengal. Other Rivers like Periyar, Pamba, Netravathi flow towards the west join in Sahayadri and mix in the Arabian Sea.
Flora and Fauna Studies
A general of 4,000 vascular plant species with 1,500 endemics (37.5%) turned into recorded with the aid of using Nair & Daniel in 1986. Of the almost 650 tree species found, 352 (54%) are endemic.
The area has fifty-eight endemic plant genera, for an instance Impatiens balsams with seventy-six of 86 species endemic, Dipterocarpus with 12 of thirteen species endemic, and Calamus with 23 of 25 species endemic, which show off excessive evolutionary radiation. There are 267 species of orchid, a hundred thirty being endemic, and 320 species of a pteridophyte, 11-thirteen lianas, 280 liverworts, and 682 mosses.
The assets conserve numerous threatened habitats: the precise seasonally mass-flowering wildflower meadows, shola thickets, and Myristica swamps. Cullenia, full-size withinside the south withinside the Cullenia exarillata-Mesua ferua-Palaquium ellipticum rainforest affiliation is a vital useful resource for primates.
The forests additionally incorporate tree species of high-quality business fee along with Indian rosewood Dalbergia latifolia, Mardi Terminalia crenulata, and Malabar kino Pterocarpus marsupium that have now been cleared from many areas.
Western Ghats Vegetation
The belongings cover 0.5% of the mountains (CEPF, 2007). It consists of 7 corporations of blanketed regions, 3 with 4 to 6 contiguous sites Agasthyamalai, Periyar, and Nilgiri, and 4 with 4 to seven in large part contiguous site, Anamalai, Talacauvery, Kudremukh, and Sahyadri.
All 39 sites withinside the belongings belong to the equal biogeographic province and are the remoted remnants of a as soon as non-stop woodland. These mountains, in particular, withinside the south, help great tiers of plant range and endemism which make it a place of main worldwide significance for his or her conservation.
The mountains are a first-rate ecological divide: monsoon forests of tropical moist evergreen and wet deciduous woodland species develop at the windward slopes and tropical dry thorn woodland of their lee.
Stunted evergreen montane forests (sholas) and huge grasslands with groves in wet hollows develop at a better altitude. The rainforests comprise a totally big wide variety of tree species of which as a minimum 60 percentage withinside the higher cover personally include now no longer multiple percentages of the total.
Clumps of bamboo develop alongside streams or in poorly tired hollows for the duration of the forests in regions in all likelihood as soon as cleared for transferring agriculture.
Western Ghats Local Population
The overall populace of the place exceeds 50 million, and lots of pursuits are urgent for conversion of the forests in which a few forty special Adivasi peoples live, to agricultural use.
These as soon as remoted rural peoples depending on the forests and upland moving agriculture are being progressively displaced, marginalized, and impoverished via way of means of incomers.
In numerous sites the bordering populations are excessive and infiltration occurs. There became a sturdy competition to NGOs and the Government over the nomination of the Talacauvery site in Kodagu (Coorg) district in south Karnataka.
Mentioned withinside the nomination record is a small ethnic network in Periyar Tiger Reserve, 3 tribes dwelling in Amarambalam Forest, 1910 indigenous human beings in 11 settlements in Mankulam Range Forest, 3 tribes dwelling in Kalikavu Range Forest, and in Mukurti National Park.
The managers of Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary offer livelihoods for and assist hold the cultural background of the nearby tribes. The nomination notes as a minimum of 14,450 human beings dwelling withinside the Agasthyamalai sites, 10,000 in Kalakad-Mundanthurai alone; 5,050 withinside the Periyar group; 2,300 withinside the Anamalai group; 1,280 withinside the Nilgiris; 6,244 in Kudremukh National Park, 42. 5% of the tribespeople, and 468 in Someshwara. This totals almost 40,000 and excludes the regularly extra numbers withinside the buffer areas.
Best Season To Visit
Monsoon and Winter are the Best Times to Visit, During the Months of October- February Flora and Fauna’s beauty will be enhanced.
Climate Change
Western Ghat has been affected by Landslides and Few Deforestation activities, Mainly this has been due to Human Interference.
Entry Fee
There is no Entry Fee, The stretch is from Gujarat to Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Mostly Train rides are available.
Covid 19 Restrictions
As of July 2021, Lock Down is Lifted in some places in India, Also Few places are restricted as per timings, All Monuments / Parks are open up till a certain time. Further updates will be posted, But International Travelers better skip this season for Travel to India.