Activists stress on the need to forget barriers and unite to ensure legal protection and community conservation efforts to save the region from further deterioration.

Shrihari Kugaji from Belgaum says, "My colleagues and I in April this year trekked and hiked in the Mhadei region but in some places, we noticed forest degradation, tree-felling and a receding water-level. In the Bhimgad areas, the anti-poaching squad has exercised a check on illegalities, but in Virdi of Maharashtra, rampant destruction continues." Amogh Ghaisas, a chartered accountant from Mumbai involved in a movement for protecting the Mhadei region since 1998, says, "The Mhadei is the richest reservoir of biodiversity. Though Goa and Karnataka areas are protected, the Maharashtra areas have not been given any protection."

Parag Raganekar, author of 'Butterflies of Goa', says, "This region, spread across three states should be protected forgetting language and border disputes as the River Mandovi, the lifeline of Goa, originates there." The Belgaum Nature Lover's Club, Bombay Natural History Society and Swami Vivekanand Smruti Sangh, Keri-Sattari, are three organizations fighting to protect this bio-region .

"The area is in the core zone of the Western Ghats and needs to be protected through a joint venture by like-minded people from the three states," says Subodh Naik, secretary of the Vivekanand Environment Awareness Brigade, Keri-Sattari.