Shivam Trivedi and Erach Bharucha
Abstract
In the current era of modernisation and globalisation, the emerging economies like India are scaling up their growth and development at a rapid rate. This economic developmental phase has however side lined the biodiversity conservation priorities in a country like India where globally recognised biodiversity hotspots such as the Western Ghats harbour a variety of endemic, endangered and threatened floral and faunal species. A large segment of the landscape in the unprotected land in the Western Ghats faces a growing challenge for conserving biodiversity. The formally recognised protected areas are being conserved through various rules and regulations. The main concern today is conserving the various types of small and large biodiversity rich âhotspecksâ that are outside the protected area boundaries that are refugia for biodiversity and are being used as jump sites for movement by various faunal species. These hotspecks are present in a matrix of both natural and cultural landscapes.