Why has IUCN red-flagged the Western Ghats?, Pg8

Key Highlights:

• The Western Ghats, Manas National Park, and Sundarbans National Park are categorized as areas of "significant concern" by the IUCN.
• The IUCN's World Heritage Outlook 4 report identifies climate change, tourism, invasive species, and roads as major threats.
• Only 57% of assessed sites have a positive conservation outlook in 2025, a decrease from 63% in previous assessments.
• The Western Ghats are threatened by hydropower projects, tourism, plantations, and climate change.

Detailed Insights:

• The IUCN report assesses over 200 natural and mixed World Heritage sites, providing in-depth analyses of threats and conservation status.
• Roads and railroads have emerged as significant threats to natural World Heritage sites in Asia, alongside forest fires, hunting, and illegal logging.
• The Western Ghats, older than the Himalayas, are a biodiversity hotspot with 325 globally threatened species, including the Nilgiri Tahr.
• Proposed projects like the Sillahalla Pumped Storage Hydroelectric project pose a threat to the Western Ghats due to dam construction and potential habitat disruption.
• Exotic species like eucalyptus and acacia are colonizing natural forests in the Western Ghats, impacting native ecosystems.
• The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework aims to halt biodiversity loss, with UNESCO playing a key role in protecting sites with extraordinary biodiversity.
• Sundarbans mangroves face threats from salinity, heavy metal contamination, unsustainable resource extraction, sea level rise, and storm surges.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Endemism: The ecological state of a species being unique to a defined geographic location.
• Invasive Species: Non-native organisms that cause harm to the environment, economy, or human health.
• Biodiversity Hotspot: A region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened with destruction.