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.

The Western Ghats, one among the 25 global hotspots of biodiversity, harbours very rich flora and fauna. There are records of over 4,000 species of flowering plants (38% endemism), 330 butterflies (11% endemic), 156 reptiles (62% endemism), 508 birds (4% endemism), 120 mammals (12% endemism) (Daniels, 2003), 290 fishes (41% endemism) (Dahanukar et al, 2004); (Babu and Nayar, 2004) and 131 amphibians (75% endemism) (Gururaja, 2004). The varied climate and diverse topography create a wide array of habitats that support unique sets of plant and animal species. The level of endemism is high and the region is considered one of the world's biodiversity hotspots. In this issue, Sreekantha discusses the diversity of Western Ghats fish fauna and highlights the threats to fresh water biodiversity.