Human intervention affects the mutual interdependencies within the ecosystems and ecosystem services that do not necessarily fall within the radar of public imagination. It is necessary to understand the nuanced connections for a better understanding of environmental sustainability in sync with human actions.
Land use changes related to agriculture and other developmental activities along with intensive harvesting of non timber forest products have led to loss of forests, grasslands and biodiversity in the Western Ghats. Although some of these activities contribute significantly to local household incomes, non sustainable resource extraction can be deleterious.
