The Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India embarked on the processof preparation of its tentative list of natural heritage properties on the world heritage list in2002 and has identified 7 sub-clusters containing 39 site elements for serial nomination fromthe Western Ghats in the states of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Inaddition to this, 3 single sites in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Gujarat havealso been identified for inclusion in the tentative list. The tentative list has been preparedthrough a participative process with active partnership between government, scientificinstitution (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun) and civil society organizations (AshokaTrust for Research in Ecology and Environment, Bangalore and Nature ConservationFoundation, Mysore)