The North Western Ghats Moist Deciduous Forests are in the transitional zone between wet evergreen forests and dry deciduous forests surrounding the Western Ghats escarpment to the east and coastal forests to the west. This ecoregion is situated in the rain shadow belts of land that span out from the precipitation peaks found in along the crest of the Deccan plateau before it slopes down to the Arabian sea. Moist deciduous forests are tall and stratured with the emergent trees attaining a height of 30 – 40 m. The canopy is between 20 – 30 m tall followed by a smaller layer of sub-canopy trees. Shrubs and lianas are quite variable in density and occurrence