Western ghats News

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Sacred groves in the Western Ghats of Pune, Maharashtra. Image by Nikhil More via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Sacred groves are better at growing future forests in the Western Ghats

Liz Kimbrough 21 Sep 2026

Western Ghats frogs sort by size to coexist, study finds

Arathi Menon 28 Aug 2026

Why Western Ghats states can’t agree on Eco-Sensitive Areas

Simrin Sirur 10 Aug 2026
A beekeeper in the Nilgiris harvests honey from her hive. Image by Shawn J. Stephen/Keystone Foundation.

Indigenous women build new livelihoods with hive boxes

Arathi Menon 3 Jul 2026
A long-legged marsh glider, a dragonfly species. Image courtesy of Chatur Ullu Lab.

Western Ghats has high odonate endemism, reveals survey

Arathi Menon 28 May 2026
Pankaj Koparde, and a crimson marsh glider. Images courtesy of Chatur Ullu Lab.

A scientist’s search for dragons and damsels [Interview]

Nikhil Sreekandan 28 May 2026
Excelsa coffee fruits at an estate in Kodagu district, Karnataka. Image courtesy of South India Coffee Company (SICC).

The search for climate resilient coffee in a warming world

Meena Menon 21 May 2026
Amblyceps vayavy, a new species of freshwater fish discovered from the Western Ghats. Image by Abhishek Shirke.

New-to-science catfish sheds light on west-flowing rivers of the Western Ghats

Lisann Dias 18 May 2026

The monkey with a lion’s tail

Team Mongabay-India 13 May 2026
New growth emerging from a Neuracanthus plant following a surface fire, enclosed in Xerocoma, amid charred grassland vegetation. Image by Adittya Dharap.

Cottony coats and comebacks

Anusha Krishnan 24 Feb 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
M.I. Varghese, a retired Indian Forest Service officer, legal scholar, and author of A Treatise on Forest Laws in Kerala. Image by K.A. Shaji.

Forest ecology cannot be reduced to arithmetic, says M.I. Varghese [Interview]

K.A. Shaji 15 Dec 2025
Given that existing anti-venom does not neutralise the venom of a Malar pit viper, the study authors are are raising awareness about these lesser-known but medically significant venomous snakes so that antivenom manufacturers can consider adding them to their immunisation pools. Image by Bose Mudappa.

Scientists warn Malabar pit viper is medically overlooked

Arathi Menon 12 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 plot twists about a river’s politics [Book Review]

Arti Das 13 Nov 2025
A stone quarry in Mangaluru, Karnataka. Representative image by Ravimum via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Quarries devour buffer forests of Western Ghats after sand mining ban

Max Martin 11 Nov 2025

How agroforests of Western Ghats support dhole populations

Simrin Sirur 7 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