Stretching for a thousand miles along India’s west coast, the Western Ghats are a spine of mountains that lay claim to being one of the most bio-diverse places in the world. Mountains rear their heads into the path of monsoon clouds, intercepting rains and making the western slopes some of the wettest places in India. Tropical rain forests thrives, and explode with life. The Western Ghats hold the key to life across southern India. Rainwater harvested by the mountains washes down to the coast, feeding Kerala’s backwaters; huge rivers flow east across India’s dry interior, a lifeline to animals and people.