Over three millennia of forest utilization and management by traditional societies, and the practice of state forestry, since last 200 years, have moulded the forest ecosystems of the Western Ghats. Major vegetational changes have began with the migration of agri-pastrol people, beginning on the middle of 4th millennium BP. The pre-colonial times had mostly village oriented traditional landscape management. Since colonial times, the forestry became more state centered, paying scant consideration to traditional management and to other forces of history which moulded the Western Ghats landscapes. The present landscape and vegetation of the region are replete with reflections of history, which may be of great ecological interest.