Dysoxylum malabaricum(white cedar) is aneconomically important tree species, endemic to the Western Ghats, India, which is the world’s most densely populated biodiversity hotspot. In this study, we used variationat ten nuclear simple sequence repeat loci to investigategenetic diversity and fine scale spatial genetic structure(FSGS) in seedlings and adults of D. malabaricumfromfour forest patches in the northern part of the WesternGhats. When genetic variation was compared betweenseedlings and adults across locations, significant differences were detected in allelic richness, observedheterozygosity, fixation index (FIS), and relatedness(P\0.05). Reduced genetic diversity and increasedrelatedness at the seedling stage might be due to fragmentation and disturbance. There was no FSGS at the adultstage and FSGS was limited to shorter distance classes atthe seedling stage. However, there was clear spatial geneticstructure at the landscape level (\50 km), regardless of ageclass, due to limited gene flow between forest patches. Acomparison of the distributions of size classes in the fourlocations with published data from a more southern area,showed that large trees (diameter at breast height, DBH,[130 cm) are present in the southern sacred forests but notin the northern forest reserves. This pattern is likely due tostronger harvesting pressure in the north compared to thesouth, because in the north there are no cultural taboosregulating the extraction of natural resources. The implications for forest conservation in this biodiversity hotspotare discussed.