Endemic trees in Western Ghats show climate resilience

The Western Ghats is the overhead water tank for peninsular India. The health of the forests in the mountains can help preserve the water flow in the peninsular rivers. The current drought and the drying up of even the mighty Godavari and Krishna showed that this relationship was fragile. A recent study shows that the forest ecosystems with endemic tree species of the Western Ghats have remained stable overall for the past 150,000 years. Thus, those habitats if preserved have chances of improving the climate resilience of the mountains and also the rivers flowing into peninsular India. Unfortunately, only a third of these stable environments are covered by the protected area network, and thus are prone to much man-made degradation. MORE …