About the Book
Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 85. Chapters: Agasthyamalai Hills, Agastya Mala, Agumbe, Anaimalai Hills, Anamudi, Anginda peak, Baba Budangiri, Banasura Hill, Banasura Hill Resort, Bandaje Falls, Biligiriranga Hills, Caecilians of the Western Ghats, Cardamom Hills, Chembra Peak, Dandeli, Doddabetta, Ensete superbum, Ghanchakkar, Goa Gap, Horanadu, Kalsubai, Kemmangundi, Kudremukh, Kuttikkanam, Lavasa, Madikeri, Mahendragiri, Male Mahadeshwara Hills, Meesapulimala, Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, Mudigere, Mullayanagiri, Nilgiri mountains, Palakkad Gap, Ponmudi, Pothigai, Pythalmala, Raorchestes resplendens, Sakleshpur, Sathyamangalam Wildlife Sanctuary, Shringeri, Sigur Plateau, Silent Valley National Park, Sirsi, Karnataka, Somwarpet, South Western Ghats montane rain forests, Talakaveri, Thirthahalli, Ullakaarvi, Yana, India, Yellapura. Excerpt: The Western Ghats or the Sahy dri constitute a mountain range along the western side of 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 India. The range runs north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau, and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain along the Arabian Sea. A total of thirty nine properties including national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserve forests were designated as world heritage sites - twenty in Kerala, ten in Karnataka, five in Tamil Nadu and four in Maharashtra. 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, Tamil Nadu and Kerala ending at Kanyakumari, at the southern tip of India. These hills cover 160,000 km (62,000 sq mi) and form the catchment area for complex riverine drainage systems that drain almost 40% of India. The Western Ghats block rainfall to the Deccan Plateau. The average elevation is around 1,200 m (3,900 ft). The area is one of the world's ten "Hottest biodiversity hotspots" and has over 5000 species of flowering plants, 139 mammal species, 508 bird species and 179 amphibian species; it is likely that many undiscovered species live in the Western Ghats. At least 325 globally threatened species occur in the Western Ghats. Western Ghats as seen from Gobichettipalayam, Tamil Nadu The Western Ghats are not true mountains, but are the faulted edge of the Deccan Plateau. They are believed to have been formed during the break-up of the super continent of Gondwana some 150 million years ago. Geophysicists Barron and Harrison from the University of Miami advocate the theory that the west coast of India came into being somewhere around 100 to 80 mya after it broke away from Madagascar. After the break-up, the western coast of India would have appeared as an
