The objective of the Western Ghats Portal is to build a collaborative open-access information system with large-scale public participation for the biodiversity and conservation of the Western Ghats. The project is funded by the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund (CEPF). The production duration is from November 2010 until June 2013. The project will be jointly executed Strand Life Sciences (Strand) and the French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP).

Over the last few decades there has been an explosion of studies to assess the past and present status of species and ecosystems of the Western Ghats. Despite the opportunities provided by these studies there are concerns about the present status of biodiversity, and the ability to predict the response of biodiversity to local and global environmental change. There are extensive studies and collection of specimens, species occurrence records, and distribution maps of species of the Western Ghats dispersed among many institutions and individuals. Further, there is considerable variability in the methods employed, and the temporal and spatial scale at which they are executed. The data, information, and knowledge generated by these studies which are essential for assessing and prioritizing biodiversity conservation needs in the Western Ghats is not publicly available. The Western Ghats Portal (WGP) intends to aggregate biodiversity information for public good, by leveraging Web 2.0 technologies and providing easy open access to this wealth of information.