Western Ghats may soon get World Heritage tag

The regional office of the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is presently conducting a survey of the Western Ghats to determine if it should be declared a World Heritage site.

According to state tourism secretary I M Vittala Murthy, once the survey is completed, the regional office will submit its report to the UNESCO for a final decision in this regard.

In 2006, India had applied to the UNESCO for the Western Ghats to be listed as a protected World Heritage Site. About 60 per cent of the Western Ghats, which is among the 16 most eco-sensitive bio-diversity hotspots in the world, falls within the state.

Two heritage locations in Karnataka, the group of monuments at Hampi and Pattadakal in Bellary and Bagalkot districts respectively, have already been declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

Of the 27 World Heritage Sites in the country, only four are natural locations "" Kaziranga National Park in Assam, Keoladevi National Park in Rajasthan, Sunderbans National Park in West Bengal and, Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Park in Uttarakhand.

The Western Ghats (Sahyadri in Kannada) are a mountain range in the west of peninsular India. They run north to south along the western edge of the DeccanPlateau and separate the plateau from a narrow coastal plain along the Arabian Sea.

The range starts near the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra, south of the Tapti river and runs approximately 1,600 km through Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala ending at Kanyakumari, at the southern tip of the Indian peninsula.