TITLE - Why we must stop the plunder of the Western Ghats SUBTITLE - To defend the ecology of the irreplaceable Western Ghats entails renewing our ties to the natural world. No trite nostrum along the lines of 'sustainable development' will suffice. Sustainability is about what we can go on taking from nature without finding the courage to face our organised, well-disguised greed The Western Ghats running 1,600 kilometres along the edge of the peninsula, are nothing less than the living ecological spine of India. Recognised as one of the world’s eight hottest biodiversity hotspots, these mountains harbour extraordinary life — nearly half of India’s flowering plant species a third of its vertebrate fauna, and over 300 globally threatened species find refuge here. Several species, like the Katlekan Marsh Nut Gund Day Gecko, are exclusive to the very forests I visited. Yet the significance of the Ghats runs deeper than sp...
