Karian Shola National Park is a protected area in the Western Ghats, India, nominated as a national park in 1989. The Western Ghats are a chain of mountains running down the west of India parallel with the coast some inland. They are not true mountains, but the edge of a fault that resulted about 150 million years ago as the subcontinent of India split from Gondwanaland. They are older than the Himalayan mountain range and are clothed in ancient forests. They influence the weather in India as they intercept the incoming monsoon storm systems. The greatest rainfall occurs between June and September during the southwest monsoon, with lesser amounts falling in the northeast monsoon between October and November. The Western Ghats are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and are considered to be one of the eight most important hotspots of biological diversity in the world.