Western ghats News

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Celebrating the life and work of Madhav Gadgil

S. Gopikrishna Warrier 13 Jan 2026
An adult female fishing spider. Image by Umesh Pavukandy.

Scientists describe a new fishing spider species

Rohini Karandikar 13 Jan 2026
The surveys revealed that low-elevation forests in the northern Western Ghats harbour unique biodiversity, with higher diversity of birds and reptiles than higher elevations. Image by Irvin Calicut via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Can climate change and human pressure favour deciduous forests?

Arathi Menon 9 Jan 2026
Gadgil visits Yashawantrao Chavan Institute of Science, Satara, Maharashtra, in 2017. Image by Subodh Kulkarni via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Madhav Gadgil – a scientist, mentor and an institution builder [Obituary]

S. Gopikrishna Warrier 8 Jan 2026
Galaxy frogs in the Western Ghats. Image by K.P. Rajkumar/ZSL.

Photo tourism threatens rare galaxy frog population

Liz Kimbrough 2 Jan 2026
A painted balloon frog at Mallathalli lake. Image by Seshadri K.S.

What expanding cities are doing to frogs and toads

Aisiri Amin 16 Dec 2025
Rhinophis siruvaniensis. Image by by Umesh P.K.

Scientists describe a new species of burrowing shieldtail snake

Vandana K. 9 Dec 2025
The single forest road that connects Cholanaikkans with the outside world. Image by Unnnikrishnan Avala.

Asia’s last cave dwellers vanishing in the shadows of change

K.A. Shaji 25 Nov 2025
The Nilgiris hills in the southern Western Ghats. Image by Divya Kilikar/Mongabay.

A stairway from the ocean to the skies [Commentary]

C.P. Rajendran 29 Oct 2025
To find out how well the toads themselves recognise mating colour signals, researchers recorded the skin colours of toads gathered at a rock pool and fed the data into a computer model that simulated toad vision, revealing they could easily detect the contrast between yellow males and the brown females. Image by Susanne Stückler and Doris Preininger.

Male toads get a monsoon makeover to stand out from the crowd

Sandhya Sekar 23 Oct 2025
An aerial view of the Sundarbans, showing the species-wise zonation. Image by Touhid Biplob via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

What is ecological succession? [Explainer]

Phalguni Ranjan 1 Sep 2025
Yellow-browed bulbul specimens collected from the Nilgiri hills in the 1800s at the Natural History Museum at Tring, England. Image by Vijay Ramesh.

Old maps and dead birds reveal the story of grassland and bird decline in the Nilgiris

Kartik Chandramouli 19 Aug 2025
A Hanuman langur leaps over tree tops in Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, Karnataka. Image by Nikhil More via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Mewa Singh on chasing monkeys for over half a century [Interview]

Arathi Menon 18 Aug 2025

Rohini Balakrishnan on why (and how) we must listen to insects [Interview]

Kartik Chandramouli 15 Aug 2025
Tubers on display at the Nilgiris Earth Festival. Image by Anokha Venugopal/Keystone Foundation.

Tubers and tribals face the climate test

Jeyanthi R. 13 Aug 2025
Striped tigers congregate in Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Maharashtra. Image by Dr. Raju Kasambe via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Why are butterflies migrating across the Indian peninsula? [Explainer]

Sandhya Sekar 12 Aug 2025

Dinesh Holla on trekking the Western Ghats for ecological awareness [Interview]

Shradha Triveni 12 Jun 2025

Wildflowers by the wayside – are they weeds? [Commentary]

R.J. Ranjit Daniels 11 Jun 2025
The author visits the tribal community in Bommiyampadi after an initial interaction 40 years earlier, for a restoration project that sought to revive groundwater and soil health. Image courtesy of Jacob Punnathara.

When elephants signalled eco-restoration in a tribal village [Commentary]

C. J. Punnathara 2 Jun 2025

Citizen science reveals lesser known invasive pest

Arathi Menon 16 May 2025