Western Ghats
Mountain range in IndiaWikipedia
55
MENTIONS
20
EPISODES
19
PODCASTS
Search complete. 55 mentions across 20 episodes found for "Western Ghats".
Sep 14, 2026
Cyrus BroachaHOST
Oh, is it?
Akshay ChavanGUEST
... of the Western Ghats.
Cyrus BroachaHOST
Yeah.
Akshay ChavanGUEST
There are no spices in Ben-Bengal, no spices in Punjab, no spices in Andhra.
Brian Edwards-TiekertHOST
Sounds like an amazing trip.
Brian Edwards-TiekertHOST
Um, I, I have biked in those two states of India, and I expect you will probably cross the Western Ghats at Ooty, which since you're a regular listener to a public health station, uh, you should know is the place that the parasite that causes malaria was initially identified.
Brian Edwards-TiekertHOST
The species of mosquito that carries it was initially identified, and, uh, the fact that it could pass from human blood into the stomach of that mosquito was initially confirmed.
Brian Edwards-TiekertHOST
Um, uh, a point of interest on the public health landscape.
Sandhya ChandrasekarayaGUEST
I was a software engineer.
Sandhya ChandrasekarayaGUEST
I would gather my colleagues, and we would go trekking in the Western Ghats.
Sandhya ChandrasekarayaGUEST
So it was two different stories.
Sandhya ChandrasekarayaGUEST
Uh, he would be somebody who would organize treks with his friends in the Himalayas.
Sandhya ChandrasekarayaGUEST
And that's when he, uh, wrote a blog about the Roopkund trek, uh, which he had been on, and the blog became very, very popular.
Sandhya ChandrasekarayaGUEST
And people started to go to Roopkund on their own, uh, by referring the blog.
Sandhya ChandrasekarayaGUEST
Uh, my parallel story was, uh, I used to trek in the Western Ghats.
Sandhya ChandrasekarayaGUEST
I wanted to trek in the Himalayas, too, and I was referring various blogs and resources, and I stumbled upon his blog, took inspiration from his blog, and I wanted to organize my own trek to Roopkund.
Anish AndheriaGUEST
So it could go all the way to Elephanta on this side, it could go all the way to Sanjay Gandhi National Park on the other side.
Anish AndheriaGUEST
Okay? And some of them can go to the foothills of the Western Ghats.
Anish AndheriaGUEST
So that's the area that this particular bat colony will service in a single night.
Anish AndheriaGUEST
And so, [lips smack] um, you know, I, I feel lot of these charismatic species that we keep talking about, uh, are good to look at, but every single species will have a role-
Deepika AryappaHOST
I'm Deepika Aryappa, The Hindu city editor for Bengaluru.
Deepika AryappaHOST
The Western Ghats mountain range is considered next only to the Himalayas in terms of being a biological treasure trove and for its scenic beauty.
Deepika AryappaHOST
It is also considered one of the world hotspots for biodiversity.
Deepika AryappaHOST
However, in recent times, it's been more in the news for threats to its unique ecosystem, especially with every natural calamity that happens there.
Deepika AryappaHOST
The latest is a draft ESA of the center, which the Karnataka government has vehemently opposed.
Deepika AryappaHOST
To discuss further about what Karnataka's concerns are with the draft that proposes the ESA is Mr.
Deepika AryappaHOST
AS Ponnappa, the political secretary to the Chief Minister of Karnataka and an MLA from Virajpet constituency in Kodagu District, which comes under the Western Ghats.
Deepika AryappaHOST
Sir, thank you so much for joining us.
Anirban ChaudhuriHOST
It is not as if the warning wasn't loud.
Anirban ChaudhuriHOST
Around a decade and a half ago, the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, headed by ecologist Madhav Gadgil, had examined the ecological pressures building across the region, including from infrastructure, tourism, mining, and other development.
Anirban ChaudhuriHOST
It recommended treating the region at an ecologically sensitive area and dividing it into zones according to ecological sensitivity.
Anirban ChaudhuriHOST
However, the report was rejected by state governments.
Anirban ChaudhuriHOST
Remember that besides Kerala, the Western Ghats cut right through Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.
Anirban ChaudhuriHOST
Critics have pointed to the rise of such events in the region, including the 2018 Kerala floods, the 2024 Wayanad landslides, and the 2024 Ankola Shirur landslides in Karnataka as a consequence of the report's dismissal.
Anirban ChaudhuriHOST
The report's broader message was that development could not be separated from the ecological limits of the landscape.
Anirban ChaudhuriHOST
Professor Kapil Gupta, whom we cited earlier, says, "When we talk about the Kerala incident, there is a lot of discussion on the destruction of Western Ghats." He adds, "When you're widening the roads, you're digging slopes.
JayHOST
I remember when I came here about a month ago.
JayHOST
I mean, this is a very, this is the Western Guards, you know, with the jungle and everything.
JayHOST
I told him, hey, I don't think I'll be needing air conditioning at all.
JayHOST
But now I see why he kept telling me, no, you will need it.
speaker_0NARRATOR
His origins lay in the Konkan coast.
speaker_0NARRATOR
that long, luminous strip of land that runs along the western edge of the Indian subcontinent, sheltered on one side by the Western Ghats and opened on the other to the full breadth of the Arabian Sea.
speaker_0NARRATOR
It is a landscape of red laterite cliffs and fishing villages, of monsoon rains so heavy they seem to be falling upward, of rivers that push into the sea and sea that pushes back.
speaker_0NARRATOR
It is a place that teaches patience, and it teaches force, and it teaches the difference between the two.
5 MINS LATER
speaker_0NARRATOR
It has a character, a temperament, a particular way of pressing itself into the people who live along it.
speaker_0NARRATOR
And that pressure, accumulated over generations, produced exactly the kind of man that Kanhoji would become.
speaker_0NARRATOR
The Konkan runs roughly 500 miles along the western edge of the Indian subcontinent, a narrow corridor of extraordinary fertility wedged between the sea and the ancient volcanic rock of the Western Ghats.
speaker_0NARRATOR
The mountains to the east are not gentle.
TaylorHOST
Right.
SamHOST
They run a seven day regenerative travel experience across the Western Ghats in coastal Karnataka called the Coast to Canopy Trail.
TaylorHOST
Yeah.
SamHOST
And what I really appreciate about this setup is the strict parameters they put on the experience.
TaylorHOST
Because usually when you travel, the focus is entirely on, you know, the geography you pass through or the monuments you use as like a selfie backdrop.
TaylorHOST
But over the course of this week, moving from the coast up into the Western Ghats, the focus shifts entirely to the people holding that geography together.
TaylorHOST
You're directly connected to the unvarnished reality of five distinct local communities.
SamHOST
So, OK, let's unpack this, because the premise basically challenges you to look past the finished product.
9 MINS LATER
TaylorHOST
No, it doesn't.
SamHOST
The route turns inland.
SamHOST
You drive up this steep elevation gradient into the extreme biodiversity of the Western Ghats for days four and five.
SamHOST
And the climate shift here is dramatic.
10 more episodes mention Western Ghats.
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