Sahyadri e-news is CES-ENVIS's quarterly newsletter, covering the issues related to Western Ghats biodiversity. Western Ghats is rich in diversity of life. Due to unplanned developmental activities, its ecological resource base is under threat, with extensive destruction of natural habitats, widespread degradation of ecosystems and a growing burden of air and water pollution. Simultaneously, knowledge base of uses of biodiversity is also being eroded, with the present generation becoming increasingly alienated from the natural world.
We need to carefully plan on conserving, sustainably using and restoring the biological diversity of the Western Ghats. We also need to conserve and benefit from the knowledge of uses and the traditions of conservation of this biological diversity. Also, we must ensure that benefits flowing from our heritage of biodiversity and related folk knowledge percolate down to the people at the grass-roots.
M D Subash Chandran and Divakar K Mesta, Centre for Ecological Sciences Field Station, Indian Institute of Science, Kumta, discuss the "Myristica Swamps" as the Remnants of Primeval Tropical Forests of the Western Ghats, in this issue.