The Western Ghats are ranges of hills along the western edge of the Deccan plateau in peninsular India. The EBA extends along the Ghats from just north of Bombay south to the tip of the peninsula, in the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, although a few of the restricted-range species present are also recorded from disjunct localities in the hills to the east, in northern Tamil Nadu and southern Andhra Pradesh.

The Western Ghats receive heavy monsoon rainfall, and tropical lowland evergreen rain forest formerly occurred in areas of highest rainfall along virtually their entire length—but most forests of this type have been cleared in the north of the EBA (Champion 1936). The evergreen rain forests are bordered by narrow strips of tropical semi-evergreen rain forest. Tropical moist deciduous forest is found where rainfall is lower and more seasonal, mainly in a narrow belt on the eastern side of the Ghats. In the higher hills in the south of the EBA, wet temperate forest is found above c.1,500 m, an evergreen forest type which is usually found in patches ('sholas') in the more sheltered sites on rolling montane grassland, and subtropical broadleaf hill forest is found at c.1,000-1,700 m (Champion and Seth 1968, Whitmore 1984, Pascal 1988). The approximate lower limit of these montane forest types is represented on the map by the 1,000 m contour.

Seven of the restricted-range bird species are found between sea-level and c.1,500 m, and they are particularly associated with evergreen and semi-evergreen rain forest, although most also occur in moist deciduous forest and subtropical hill forest (see 'Habitat associations' table). Of these seven species, five are found along the entire length of the Ghats, but two Garrulax delesserti and Dendrocitta leucogastra have not been recorded from north of Goa. D. leucogastra is known also from two disjunct localities to the east of the Ghats outside the EBA-Bangalore and Palmaner (Ali and Ripley 1987). Turdoides subrufus also occurs east of the Ghats, in the Shevaroy hills.

Five of the restricted-range species are particularly associated with wet temperate sholas and subtropical broadleaf hill forest, in the Bababudan, Brahmagiri, Biligirangan, Nilgiri, Palni and Anamalai hills, and Garrulax jerdoni is also recorded further north in Goa (Rane 1984). One of these species, G. cachinnans, is restricted to just the Nilgiri hills, where it replaces the more widespread G. jerdoni. Anthus nilghiriensis and Schoenicola platyura are found in the montane grassland on the higher southern ranges (S. platyura is also known from a nineteenth-century record further north near Belgaum: MacGregor 1887). In the southern part of the EBA, the lowland and montane forest groups of birds overlap at c.1,000-1,500 m. Columba elphinstonii and Nectarinia minima range along the entire length of the Ghats and are found from the lowlands to high altitudes.

The main threat is habitat loss and degradation. The lowland evergreen and semi-evergreen rain forests probably once extended onto the coastal plain to the west of the Ghats, but almost all forest below 500 m has long been cleared. The remaining forests face a number of pressures, as increasing human population has led to increased illegal encroachment into forest lands, livestock-grazing, and the harvesting of fuelwood and huge quantities of minor forest products such as bamboo and canes. The steep western slopes of the Ghats are ideal for generating hydroelectric power, and dams are flooding large areas of valley forest and leading to developments such as new access roads which are increasing encroachment into the forest. The high-altitude shola grasslands have traditionally been burnt annually by nomadic graziers, which has probably much reduced the extent of wet temperate forest sholas, but these grasslands continue to be converted to plantations of tea, eucalyptus and wattle Acacia dealbata (Champion 1936, Collins et al. 1991, V. J. Zacharias in litt. 1993, L. Vijayan in litt. 1996).

There is a network of c.40 protected areas in the Western Ghats, many of which include extensive areas of the EBA's characteristic habitats (MacKinnon and MacKinnon 1986, IUCN 1992c). They are located along the entire length of the Ghats, and support populations of all of the restricted-range birds. The protection which they afford to the remaining forest and grassland is the main reason that none of the restricted-range species is currently considered threatened. The threatened Kashmir Flycatcher Ficedula subrubra breeds in the Western Himalayas (EBA 128) and winters in montane forest in this EBA and Sri Lanka (EBA 124).

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Endemic Bird Area factsheet: Western Ghats. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/eba/factsheet/125 on 22/11/2024.