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.

Peninsular India is a plateau country, occupied by the ‘Deccan plateau' which tilts towards the Bay of Bengal.   The steeper hills which bound the plateau on the west are called the ‘western ghats' and overlook the Arabian sea; while the more gentle slopes on the east are identified as ‘eastern ghats'. The Coastal plains are narrow and intensively cultivated with tropical crops.   The north-western Deccan is made up of lava on account of series of flows ejected by volcanic vents.   The Satpura range forms a line of division between the Northern Indian Plain and Peninsular India.   In the south-west are the Nilgiri and Cardamom hills, the only significant tea-growing area of India outside the Assam hills.

At the dawn of civilization humans settled down on the banks of rivers, sailed down rivers to explore unknown land, etc. In this issue, M. F. Rahman discusses the "Statuts of Inland Aquatic Resources : their Utilization and the need for Conservation", in this issue.