NON CHORDATES

NONCHORDATES

Although knowledge of invertebrate diversity in the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka is poor, the hotspot is believed to have significant levels of endemism within certain groups. For example, more than 100 of nearly 140 tiger beetle species are endemic. However, this may not hold true across groups: the number of butterfly species in this region is relatively low, with only 37 endemics of 330 in the Western Ghats, and 24 of 234 species endemic to Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka has a number of unique endemics, including Aneuretus simoni, the only surviving representative of one of the world’s 14 ant subfamilies. It also hosts more than 50 known species of endemic freshwater crabs (all in the Parathelphusidae family), all of them endemic. These species are gravely threatened by habitat fragmentation and degradation, as well as by pesticide use in nearby areas. A preliminary assessment of their conservation status indicates that they are in dire straits: of the 51 species, 23 are listed as Critically Endangered, seven as Endangered, and another seven as Vulnerable.

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CHORDATES

CHORDATES

Birds
The avifauna of the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka is diverse, but endemism is not exceptional. There are more than 450 known bird species from the hotspot, of which about 35 are endemic. More than 20 species are endemic to Sri Lanka, mostly from the lowland rainforests and montane forests of the island's southwestern region. Both the Western Ghats and the island of Sri Lanka are considered as Endemic Bird Areas by BirdLife International.

Of the endemic species, 10 are considered threatened, including the green-billed coucal (Centropus chlororhynchos, VU), the Sri Lanka whistling thrush (Myiophonus blighi, EN) and rufous-breasted laughingthrush (Garrulax cachinnans, EN). The hotspot also holds several widespread threatened waterbird species, including the spot-billed pelican (Pelecanus philippensis, VU) and the lesser adjutant (Leptoptilos javanicus, VU). Another threatened species, the Kashmir flycatcher (Ficedula subrubra, VU), breeds in the Himalayas and winters in the Western Ghats and in Sri Lanka.

Mammals
The hotspot is home to about 140 mammal species, although less than 20 are endemic. While mammal diversity is lower here than in some other tropical hotspots, the hotspot does support a significant diversity of bats, with nearly 50 species and one endemic genus, represented by the bat Latidens salimalii (CR), which is endemic to the High Wavy Mountains in the Western Ghats. In addition, there are three genera confined to Sri Lanka, each represented by single species: Pearson’s long-clawed shrew (Solisorex pearsoni, EN), Kelaart's long-clawed shrew (Feroculus feroculus, EN), and the Ohiya rat (Srilankamys ohiensis).

Among flagship mammal species, the most prominent are the lion-tailed macaque (Macaca silenus, EN), found in highly fragmented tropical rain forests in the Western Ghats, and the endemic Nilgiri tahr (Hemitragus hylocrius, EN), which lives in the montane grasslands of the Western Ghats. One of the most threatened Indian mammals, the Malabar civet (Viverra civettina, CR), is known only from the Malabar Plains, which are densely populated and the focus of most development activities.

The hotspot also has important populations of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus, EN). The Western Ghats is home to about 11,000 animals, while in Sri Lanka the species has been nearly extirpated from the wet zone and only about 2,500 survive elsewhere on the island.

Reptiles
The highest levels of vertebrate endemism in the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka hotspot are among reptiles and amphibians. Of the region's more than 260 reptile species, about 175 (66 percent) are endemic. One quarter of the nearly 90 reptile genera in the hotspot are endemic, and nine of these are represented by single species. Families such as Uropeltidae (47 of 48 species), Gekkonidae (18 of 30), and Agamidae (20 of 26) exhibit very high endemism.

Amphibians
Endemism is particularly marked among amphibians in this hotspot: of approximately 175 species, roughly 130 are endemic. In the case of Sri Lanka, amphibian diversity is only now becoming better known, and the country's wet zone alone may contain as many as 140 endemic species. Across the hotspot, the genusPhilautus is particularly well represented with over 50 species occurring, and nearly all of them are endemic.
Additionally, six genera (out of a total of 28) are endemic to the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka. Recently, a new amphibian family was discovered in Kerala in the Western Ghats; the burrowing anuran family, Nasikabatrachidae, with the single species Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis (EN), represents the only endemic amphibian family in the hotspot. The closest living relatives of this family are the Sooglosside in the Seychelles.
Unfortunately, the amphibian fauna fare particularly high levels of threat, driven particularly by the continuing levels of habitat loss. Among the endemics, over 85 species are considered threatened. Amphibian extinctions are also relatively well documented, with some 20 historically recorded extinctions.

Freshwater Fishes
Many freshwater fish occupy very limited ranges in the Western Ghats and in Sri Lanka. Nearly 140 of more than 190 species of strictly freshwater fishes are endemic to the hotspot. There are also nine endemic genera, including one, Malpulutta, found only on Sri Lanka. In the Western Ghats, the southern region is known to be more diverse than the central and northern regions.

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FAUNA

FAUNA

The Western Ghats lies with the Sahyadri mountains ranges along the western side of India and separates the Deccan plateau from a narrow coastal plain of the Arabian Sea. The beautiful green valley is home to thousands of wild animal species including at least 325 globally threatened species. The fauna ofwestern ghats includes 139 mammal species, reptiles, the amphibians- endangered purple frog, 102 species of fish, molluscs, annelids, 508 bird species with malabar grey horn bill and beautiful malabar parakeet and roughly 6,000 species of insects with some of the most beautiful butterfly. The national parks and  hill ranges of Western Ghats serve as an important wildlife corridors to big Indian cats, Great Indian elephants, wild boars, vulnerable Gaur – The Indian bison and vulnerable sloth bears. Apart from the above listed wild species Western Ghat also home to India’s unique wild species such asIndian flying fox, Indian giant squirrel and Nilgiri tahr. Recently Western Ghat is announced as one of the UNESCO world heritage site in India.

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ANGIOSPERMS

ANGIOSPERMS OF WESTERN GHATS

Ceropegia jainii

Jaini Ceropegia is a very rare and threatened herb, endemic to the Sahyadri Hills. It is a small erect herb, 10-20 cm high, with tuberous root. Tubers are hairless, 2-3 cm. Slender stem is green with oppositely arranged leaves. Leaves are linear-lanceshaped, 2-5 cm long, hairy on both sides, margins with stiff hairs. Flowers occur singly in leaf axils. Slender flower-stalks are 6-10 mm long. Sepals are lance-shaped, 3-5 mm. Flowers are 2 cm long, tubular, with the tube enlarged at the base and white. Five narrow linear petals are 1 cm long, reddish-purple, and hairy at the base. Sometimes the flower is completely purplish-red.

Pleocaulus ritchei

Mal Karvy is a small perennial shrub, usually half a meter tall, but after the flowering year, grows to 2 m tall. Numerouis quadrangular stems form a hemispherical tuft on the ground. Oppositely arranged stalkless leaves are ovate, rounded at the base, 2-3 cm long. Purple flowers occur in spikes 3-8 cm long, either in leaf axils or at the end of branches. Bristly bracts are 2 cm long, with long hairs, and tinged with purple. Flowers are bell-shaped with flaring petals. Stamens are 6 in number, and remain inside the flower.

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FLORA

FLORA

Among the 25 hot spots of the world, two are found in India extending into neighboring countries - the Western Ghats/Sri Lanka and the Indo-Burma region (covering the Eastern Himalayas). The Western Ghats are a chain of highlands running along the western edge of the Indian subcontinent, from Bombay south to the southern tip of the peninsula, through the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Covering an estimated area of 159,000 sq. km, the Western Ghats is an area of exceptional biological diversity and conservation interest, and is "one of the major Tropical Evergreen Forest regions in India" (Rodgers and Panwar, 1988). As the zone has already lost a large part of its original forest cover, it must rank as a region of great conservation concern. The small remaining extent of natural forest, coupled with exceptional biological richness and ever increasing levels of threat (agriculture, reservoir flooding plantations, logging and over exploitation), are factors which necessitate major conservation inputs.

Indian subcontinent as a rich biological diversity in the world owing to its vast geographic area, varied topography and climate, and diverse biogeographical regions.

Because of its richness in overall species diversity India is recognised as one of the 12 megadiversity regions ofthe world. A very small number of countries, mainly in the tropics, possess a large fraction of world.species diversity and those countries which posses the greatest species richness are recognised as megadiversity countries which attract special international attention. Of about 1.7 million species globally  described and recorded in scientific literature, India has about 1,26,200 species (Khoshoo, 1995).It ranks tenth in the world both in respect of richness of flowering plants (17,000spp.)and mammals (372 spp.)Of India's 49,219 plant species, 1600 endemics (40% of the total number of endemics) are found in a 17,000 km² strip of forest along the seaward side of the Western Ghats in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala (WCMC. 1992). Forest tracts up to 500 metres in elevation, comprising one-fifth of the entire forest expanse, are mostly evergreen, while those in the 500–1500 metres range are semi-evergreen. There are two main centres of diversity, the Agastyamalai Hills and the Silent Valley/New Amambalam Reserve basin (Myers. 1988).

There are currently seven national parks in the Western Ghats with a total area of 2,073 sq. km (equivalent to 1.3% of the region) and 39 wildlife sanctuaries covering an area of about 13,862 sq. km (8.1%). The management status of the wildlife sanctuaries in this part of India varies enormously. Almost one-third of all the flowering plant species in India are found in this region. Of the 450-odd plants found in this region, 40% are endemic (these are species that have adapted to thisparticular area and the conditions existing in it.) There is an equal diversity of animal and bird life. There is only one biosphere reserve in the Western Ghats, the Nilgiri biosphere reserve,which helps in conserving endemic and endangered species. A few of the indigenous and exotic tree and plant species in the Western Ghats are the teak, jamun, cashew, hog plum, coral tree, jasmine, and crossandra. During the past 40 to 50 years the plant and animal life has as a whole suffered due to so-called development and urbanization, which has led to the extinction of many species and more are in danger of becoming extinct

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HOME

HOME

India has a unique combination of living species, habitats and ecosystems, which together makes it a diversity rich country in the world. The Indian region with varied bio-climatic zones, altitudinal zones, edaphic condition and other accompanying micro-climatic conditions nurture rich and diverse flora which in turn have bestowed upon it the distinction of being the sixth among the 12-mega biodiversity zones of the world. India is recognized as a country rich in all aspects of biodiversity, ecosystem, species and genetics. India harbours two mega-biodiversity regions the North Eastern hill regions and the Western Ghats. India, while following the path of development, has been sensitive to the needs of conservation. India’s strategies for conservation and sustainable utilization of biodiversity in the past have comprised of providing special status and protection to biodiversity rich areas by declaring them as national parks, biosphere reserves, sanctuaries, ecological fragile and sensitive areas. One such area is the Western Ghats, which runs parallel to the west coast of India.

Stretching like a mountainous spine down the western edge of India, the Western Ghats are a unique mountain range that harbours an incredible diversity of flora and fauna . Although most of the Western Ghats appear more like rolling hills than craggy snow-covered peaks , parts of it do reach over 2,000 metres and it contains the highest mountain in India, the Anaimudi, at 2,695 metres .

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