Green Hills: The Glory of India’s Western Ghats

Counted among the world’s top eight biodiversity hotspots and labelled a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Western Ghats stretch 1,600 kilometres from Mumbai to the Southern end of India. The thick forests that cover these gentle hills are abundant in at least 325 globally threatened species, from the largest population of Asian elephants in the world to amphibians and reptiles, new species of which are discovered each year, endemic species found nowhere else in the world and a boggling variety of plants and trees, including rare flowers that bloom once in 12 years. The hills come especially alive during the monsoon each year, when their slopes are carpeted in green, there is something growing, slithering, feeding on every branch and under every leaf.

Learn more about this range that runs parallel to India’s western coast through the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat; and is a globally important region for the conservation of biological diversity.