Why has IUCN red-flagged the Western Ghats? | Explained

The story so far: The expansive Western Ghats and two national parks in India—Assam’s Manas national park and West Bengal’s Sundarbans national park—have been categorised as being of “significant concern” in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) list of natural World Heritage sites across Asia.

Why the survey?

The IUCN’s World Heritage Outlook 4 report released earlier this month attributes four biggest threats to the loss of habitats and species in South Asia: climate change, tourism activities, invasive alien species, and roads. The report categorises the natural sites as “good”, “good with some concerns”, “significant concern”, and “critical”.

“Each of these categories not only shows the potential for a site to preserve its values and underlying attributes but also indicates the urgency of measures that need to be taken to improve the conservation outlook and ensure the long-term conservation of all sites,” says the report.

The IUCN assessment of over 200 natural and mixed World Heritage sites “offers the most in-depth analyses of threats facing natural World Heritage around the world and their protection and management status,” says Grethel Aguilar, IUCN director general, in the introduction to the report.

The report uses four cycles of conservation assessments undertaken since 2014.

“A key finding is that almost 40% of sites face conservation concerns, with climate change continuing to be the most prevalent threat,” Aguilar says. The report points out that percentage of sites with “a positive conservation outlook has, for the first time, decreased significantly.”

Do we have ‘good’ protected areas?

Of the 228 sites assessed since 2014, some 63% of sites had a positive outlook in 2014, 2017 and 2020, “however, the IUCN World Heritage Outlook 4 shows that in 2025 only 57% of these sites have a positive conservation outlook.”

The threats are also shapeshifting in the natural World Heritages sites in Asia. While in 2025 climate change is the most prevalent threat, in 2020 it was hunting. Tourism comes next. Invasive alien species are now the third biggest threat.

“It is also notable that roads and railroads are now among the top five greatest threats to natural World Heritage in Asia, while in 2020 this was not the case.”

Protected areas in South Asia are being usurped rapidly, obliterating natural habitats. The other threats include: forest fires, hunting, roadkill, waste disposal, encroachment, illegal logging, road construction, says the report.

Of the 32 Asian sites categorised as “good with some concerns,” four happen to be in India: The Great Himalayan National Park Conservation Area, Kaziranga National Park, Keoladeo National Park, and Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks. Khangchendzonga National Park in Sikkim has been rated “good” in its conservation outlook, valuing “attributes [that] are currently in good condition and likely to be maintained for the foreseeable future, provided that current conservation measures are maintained.”

The Western Ghats, a mosaic of forests and grasslands, are older than the Himalayas and have an exceptionally high level of biological diversity and endemism, habitat to some 325 globally threatened (listed in IUCN’s Red List) flora, fauna, bird, amphibian, reptile and fish species, according to UNESCO. This includes the Nilgiri tahr, a stocky, agile goat found nowhere else in the world.

What makes the Western Ghats vulnerable?

But the Western Ghats are highly endangered not least by hundreds of hydropower projects such as the proposed Rs 5,843 crore Sillahalla Pumped Storage Hydroelectric project in the Nilgiris, which involves constructing dams across River Sillahalla and River Kundah, with an aim to generate 1,000 MW of power for Tamil Nadu’s plains.

Tourism is creating problems of garbage, often consumed by wild animals such as elephants and exacerbating conflict. Plantations are replacing natural ecosystems. And climate change has forced fauna to adapt by redistributing themselves from fast-warming lower altitudes to higher reaches, such as the Nilgiri flycatcher and the black and orange flycatcher. Exotic species are colonising natural forests, such as eucalyptus and acacia (both originally from Australia), introduced here during the colonial era.

As for the Sundarbans mangroves where tigers swim, salinity, heavy metal contamination, and unsustainable resource extraction threatens the ecosystem; and sea level rise, frequent storm surges reduce mangrove biodiversity, says the report.

Is there hope yet?

Outside India, seven sites in China have been proclaimed “best protected and managed protected areas,” including Badain Jaran Desert-Towers of Sand and Lake, Chengjiang Fossil Site, and Mount Huangshan.

Natural World Heritage sites make up less than 1% of the Earth’s surface, but nurture more than 20% of mapped global species richness. “This includes over 75,000 species of plants, and over 30,000 species of mammals, birds, fishes, reptiles and amphibians,” says the report.

This report is timely. “The world has agreed to halt biodiversity loss through the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and the UNESCO World Heritage Convention is uniquely placed to meet these challenges by bridging the gap between nature and culture, and protecting places with extraordinary biodiversity, functional habitats and high ecosystem integrity,” says the report.

By analysing the conservation outlook of natural and mixed World Heritage sites over the past 10 years, the report presents a “litmus test of conservation action”.

“This report is more than a health check. It is a guide for action,” says Aguilar.

There is hope yet. For instance, the report says several of Asia’s World Heritage sites offer “good practice examples” by bringing in younger generations, and local communities in conservation efforts: such as in Mount Wuyi in China and the Sinharaja Forest Reserve in Sri Lanka.