Kaas Plateau

The Kas Plateau Reserved Forest, also known as the Kaas Pathar, is a plateau situated 25 kilometres west of Satara city in Maharashtra, India. It falls under the Sahyadri Sub Cluster of the Western Ghats. It became a part of a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site in 2012. It is a biodiversity hotspot known for various types of seasonal wildflowers that bloom and numerous species of endemic butterflies annually in the months of August and September. The plateau is situated at an altitude of 1200 metres and is approximately 10 square kilometers in area. Kaas has more than 850 different species of flowering plants. These include orchids, shrubs such as the Karvy, and carnivorous plants such as Drosera indica. Kaas Pathar is a plateau made from volcanic rocks in the Satara district of Maharashtra, and comes under the biosphere of the Western Ghats. The flora of Kaas, i.e., the entire flowering plants and their related plants are typically restricted to that particular locality only.