The
Western Ghats or
Sahyadri is a mountain range that runs parallel to the western coast of the
Indian peninsula, located entirely in India. It is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the eight "hottest hotspots" of biological diversity in the world. It is sometimes called the Great Escarpment of India. The range runs north to south along the western edge of the
Deccan Plateau, and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain, called
Konkan, along the
Arabian Sea. A total of thirty nine properties including national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserve forests were designated as world heritage sites - twenty in
Kerala, ten in
Karnataka, five in
Tamil Nadu and four in
Maharashtra.