PANJIM: Claiming that inclusion of Goa region of Western Ghat in the World Heritage Site of UNESCO will put the place on par with other unique sites across the World, the State Government has given its green signal to the proposal to include State’s 755 sq kms protected area on the heritage list. The proposal has been forwarded to the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII), which is the nodal agency appointed by Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to coordinate with UNESCO on the proposal of including the Western Ghats as a natural heritage site. Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (APCCF) Richard D’Souza said that State has proposed all the wildlife sanctuaries and protected areas be included in the UNESCO heritage list. The proposal would be placed during the next UNESCO meeting. He said UNESCO had allowed MoEF to submit a proposal to include the Goa stretch of the Western Ghats by January 19, 2013. “Accordingly a proposal was forwarded to the Ministry on January 16,” he added. When 39 sites in the Western Ghats made it to the UNESCO world heritage list in July 2012, the Goa stretch was not one of them. Environmentalists in the State were upset over State government’s lackadaisical attitude in conserving the Western Ghat. The State Forest Department in August, last year, had begun the process to draft the proposal. D’Souza said Goa’s inclusion in the world’s natural heritage list will not have any effect on the developmental activity but would place the State on par with other heritage sites. The proposal has justified that Goa is the only State amongst all Western Ghat region States to have its entire mountain range under protected status. “The entire eastern belt of Goa that forms part of the Ghat with State protected forests comprises of four wildlife sanctuaries and a national park,” the proposal reads adding ‘once Goa gets recognized as a world heritage site there will be immense scope for tourists and researchers who would like to visit the area and study the species diversity’. The proposal also admits that Goa along with contiguous forests of Karnataka and Maharashtra, is one of the best potential tiger habitat in this bio-diversity hotspot and therefore needs protection. The proposal has also mentioned about the species and its endemism to the region. The region has some 5000 vascular plant species (1700 endemic), 228 freshwater fish species (118 endemic), 179 amphibian (117 endemic), 157 reptiles (97 endemic), 508 bird species (17 endemic) and 139 mammal species (17 endemic).