Activists say uncontrolled tourism, frequent forest fires, illegal mining, encroachments and poaching continue to threaten the region and that little has been done to even generate awareness about the world heritage tag.

For starters, the state forest department has failed to put up signboards declaring that these areas are now world heritage sites, as it is still awaiting official orders for the same. Of the 39 sites in the Western Ghats given the world heritage status, four fall in Maharashtra. These are Kas plateau, Koyna wildlife sanctuary, Chandoli national park and Radhanagari Wildlife sanctuary in the Sahyadri range. "But the world heritage site signboard is there only at Kas plateau. People living in the villages near the other sites don't know about the recognition that has been given," said Nana Khamkar, an environmental activist.

Forest department officials said they are yet to receive any official communication from Unesco, or the ministry on the matter. "It (inclusion of Western Ghats) is there on the Unesco website, but we have not received any official communication," said Mohan Karnat, field director of the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve (STR) - which includes the Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary and the Chandoli National Park. Moe Chiba, programme specialist for culture at Unesco, said the communication had been sent through the proper channel to both the ministry of culture and the ministry of environment and forests.

But the reticence about the heritage tag is the least of environmentalists' worries.

They list graver concerns, critical among them being the denotification of nearly one-fourth of the land of the Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary, which was ironically announced soon after Unesco listed it on the world heritage list. The proposal to denotify 93 square kilometres of land in 14 villages was cleared by the National Wildlife Board, following which the forest authorities filed an interlocutory application before the Supreme Court, which is yet to give the final decision on the matter.

These 14 villages are part of the New Mahabaleshwar project. There have been encroachments on the forest area - land deals have been struck and wind farms have come up illegally. Denotification of this land will legitimise these, said Khamkar, who has filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court on the issue.

What has also got the goat of activists is the unregulated tourism at these heritage sites. Take for instance, Kas plateau where officials have failed to check the surge in tourist numbers. After a failed attempt last year to restrict the number of tourists to 2,000 every day, restrictions have been waived this season.

Forest fires too pose a major threat. Forest officials say between 2005 and 2013, an average of 42,000 hectares of forest caught fire each year and in the last one year alone they received reports of 20 forest fires.

Add to that the concern of mining (see box). As many as seven bauxite mines are registered with Kolhapur administration with stations in Shahuwadi and Radhanagari taluka, both eco-sensitive zones.

"We have made a presentation on this issue to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)," said Karnat.

Officials blame the practice of 'Raab', wherein farmers burn the land before cultivation particularly in the months of March, April and May, for the frequent forest fires. "We try to make people aware about the disastrous impact of forest fires, but they are not ready to change their traditional cultivation practices," said Satyajeet Gujar, divisional forest officer (wildlife).

Grasslands and meadows in the forests of Koyna and Chandoli have suffered much loss of green cover, Gujar said.

Vinod B Mathur, dean, Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun, central government coordinator for the efforts being made to manage the world natural heritage site status, said that Unesco will review the status in 2015-16 and that efforts should be made to protect them.