Running down the Southwestern Ghats mountain range in southern India are a series of highland rainforests, moist deciduous forests and ‘shola-grassland complexes’ which contain a large proportion of India’s animal and plant species. Whilst its small mammal fauna doesn’t rival the African, Mexican and SE Asian Key Regions in terms of overall species richness, it supports an important number of endemic murids, squirrels and shrews. This includes the Vulnerable Malabar Spiny Dormouse Platacanthomys lasiurus which is a monotypic genus and the sole representative of the Platacanthomyidae family within the SMSG’s Key Regions (only one other species in this family is extant today, the Chinese Pygmy Dormouse Typhlomys cinereus). There are 7 other globally threatened species in this Key Region, examples of which include Kelaart's Long-clawed Shrew, Dusky-striped Squirrel, Servant Mouse, Day's Shrew and Nilgiri Long-tailed Tree Mouse.

With a huge human population, the need for for space and natural resources has led to increasing and multiple threats to the Southwestern Ghats Moist Forests. Logging, agriculture, hydroelectric projects, livestock grazing, mining, road construction, and tourism and urban expansion are exerting great pressure on these forests. The Nilgiri and Cardamom hills, so rich in endemic plant and animals species, are especially affected by the tea, coffee, and rubber plantations.

Nearly two-thirds of the montane rainforests in this region have already been cleared and what remains is fragmented, except for one large intact habitat block in the southern area of the region. About 3,200 km2 of the montane rainforests is already included within sixteen protected areas. Of these the Periyar, Anamalai, and Kalakad-Mundanthurai are three important reserves.

Our knowledge of this small mammal fauna is limited, and more fieldwork is needed to understand the ecology of these species. Just one Data Deficient species occurs in this Key Region.