A recent report of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) expressed “significant concern” over four of the country’s natural world heritage sites which include the Western Ghats, Kaziranga National Park, Manas Wildlife Sanctuary and the Sunderbans. The Great Himalayan National Park, Nanda Devi, Keoladeo National Park and the Valley of Flowers National Park were categorised as 'Good with some concerns'.
The report says that conservation is threatened in these regions due to commercial hunting, tourism, dams, road construction — all of which have contributed to rising biotic pressure.
A total of 228 world heritage sites were assessed across the world in this regard. The report has acknowledged the conservation efforts made for well-managed sites and also to promote the exchange of effective management strategies between the sites. It also made an attempt to identify the more serious conservation issues faced by the natural world heritage sites and to figure out an action plan to resolve the issues.
The report has special mention on Western Ghats. There are 39 serial world heritage sites in the region across the States of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
In the threat assessment of the sites, the experts from IUCN recorded that the biodiversity in the Western Ghats is under extraordinary pressure on account of the huge population pressure which is both within the property as well as surrounding it.
The report states: “The sites that are traditionally conserved by small populations of indigenous people leading sustainable lifestyles, face many challenges. There exist a large number of threats which severely threaten the Outstanding Universal Value of the property. It would require coordinated conservation responses at all levels, including political, sociological and biological, to overcome the challengers.” The perpetual need for development will also continue to put pressure on the site.
The report noted that although at the time of inscription, the values in the world heritage sites of the Western Ghats may have been good, but enough data is not available regarding the current state and trend of these sites. In order to ensure that the values are conserved, targeted monitoring of these sites is the need of the day.
Apart from this, the report also identified climate change as another major factor which in the coming days will further aggravate a system that is already threatened. The Sunderbans also deserves a mention in this regard.