UNESCO inscribed Western Ghats Mountain Chain on the List of World Heritage Sites

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the science and cultural body of UN, inscribed India's 1600-km long Western Ghats mountain chain on the list of its world heritage sites on 1 July 2012. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee included 39 sites scattered across Ghats in the coveted list of world heritage sites. Kerala with 20 sites got maximum number of sites included in the heritage list followed by Karnataka with ten. Five sites from Tamil Nadu and four from Maharashtra got the world heritage tag. The Kas plateau, the Koyna wildlife sanctuary, the Chandoli national park and the Radhanagari Wildlife sanctuary in Maharashtra received the designation of world heritage site.
The Western Ghats mountain chain is globally renowned for its enormous biological diversity. The mountain’s chain, which are older than the Himalaya, are widely responsible for the Indian monsoon weather pattern. The Western Ghats are also considered to be one of the world's eight hottest hotspots of biological diversity.
The 1600-km long ghats, begins at the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra and passes through as many as 5 states including Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu marks the ending point of the ghats.
The decision to include Western Ghats in the World Heritage list came after a meeting held in Russia on 1 July 2012. Committee of UNESCO holds its meeting once every year, where it looks into the implementation of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, which defines the kind of natural or cultural sites which can be considered for inclusion on the World Heritage List. Presently five natural sites and 23 cultural sites from India have been inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage List.
India had nominated the Western Ghats for the inclusion in world heritage site at the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Paris, in February 2010. The Union Environment Ministry in 2010 had constituted an Ecology Expert Panel headed by noted environmentalist Madhav Gadgil to suggest ways to protect the ghats.