Original subtitles

The Western Ghats are an ancient mountain range,

where rain forests burst with an explosion of life,

Rivers nurture wild animals

and provide water to billions of people.

Age old human cultures live alongside rare

and dangerous creatures.

The rain drenched peaks of the Western Ghats hold the key

to life in Southern India.

These are India's monsoon mountains.

(upbeat music)

(tiger roars)

(upbeat music)

(dramatic music)

The Western Ghats mountains stretch 1,600 kilometers,

from Mumbai all the way to the Southern tip of India,

running parallel to India's west coast.

The spine of hills cover 6% of India's landmass,

but provides a home to over 30% of its plant

and animal species.

Deadly snakes, rare primates and supreme predators all made

in the Western Ghats.

It's one of the most biodiverse places in the world.

Humans have found a home here too.

For thousands of years,

man has lived side by side with nature

and benefited from the fertile land.

The secret to this explosion of life lies

in the very mountains themselves.

Huge peaks rise into the path of monsoon clouds,

triggering rainfall and producing one

of the wettest climates in India.

Tropical rainforests thrive.

This jungle canopy is home

to one of India's most elusive animals.

Hidden among the leafy branches is the rarest macaque

in the world,

the lion-tailed macaque.

Their dark bodies and gray manes make them difficult

to spot among the shadows.

The thick fur of their manes help to keep out the worst

of the rain.

These primates are jungle specialists.

They spend most of that time eating fruits.

And there's always food close at home in the forest.

These jackfruits are barely ripped,

but that doesn't bother the hungry macaque.

Its large canines are strong enough

to tear through the fruit's tough, spiny skin.

Figs are another jungle staple.

And these are much more accessible to other creatures

in the canopy too.

The Malabar giant squirrel uses its long tail

as a counterweight to help it balance while it feeds.

Malabar squirrels are one of the largest squirrels

in the world.

They can grow to be half a meter long,

and weigh up to three kilos.

Like their neighbors the macaques,

giant squirrels spend time grooming each other.

It reinforces bonds and helps keep parasites at bay.

(bright upbeat music)

But the jungle is full of creatures

with a far less friendly bites.

The leech tests the air groping around

to find a blood meal.

It will latch onto any passing mammal,

but it's no more than a nuisance to lion-tailed macaque.

There are far deadlier predators in the jungle.

(dramatic music)

The king cobra, the largest venomous snake in the world.

These giant reptiles can grow to be over five meters long.

They are the true kings of the jungle.

Venturing down to the forest floor is a risky business.

The cobra's eyesight is so sharp.

It can spot prey moving a hundred meters away.

But luckily for the lion-tailed macaque,

it's not on its menu.

King cobras eat only other snakes.

The hump-nosed pit viper could be in danger,

but it's only 30 centimeters long,

too small to be much of a meal.

A three meter rat snake is more appealing.

Locked onto its target,

the cobra cracks its prey by smell,

but not with its nostrils.

It smells with its tongue.

Chemical scent particles stick to its tongue

and transfer to receptors on the roof of its mouth,

known as the Jacobson's organ.

The forks in its tongue work in stereo enabling the Cobra

to pinpoint prey, but deadly accuracy.

King cobra inject more venom

in a single bite than any other snake,

enough to kill an elephant.

But snakes have a built-in resistance for the poison.

It takes a lot more venom to kill a snake than a mammal.

So a snaky can king cobra delivers a massive dose.

One bite is all it takes.

In a matter of minutes,

the cobra's venom shuts down the rat snake's nervous system.

Proteins in the poison start digesting the prey,

before the cobras even finished swallowing.

Danger is everywhere in the Indian jungle.

Even the smallest animals can be deadly.

A swarm of ants overwhelms a spider hundreds

of times their size.

A second spider intervenes, but this is no rescue mission.

Spiders think nothing of making a meal of their own kind.

The ants overpower it almost immediately.

It's lucky to escape with its life.

Staying out of sight is the best way to stay alive.

A draco lizard is perfectly camouflaged to blend

in the tree bark.

Keeping still, he hope it disappears.

But today, this draco wants to be noticed.

He's looking for a mate.

A bright flap of skin called the dewlap,

advertise of his presence to females.

But he's attracted the wrong kind of attention,

a vine snake.

Horizontal pupils give the vine snake,

acute binocular vision.

It can judge distance with pinpoint accuracy.

This is one of the thinnest snakes in the world.

Its body is just two centimeters wide,

but it's two meters long.

Its mouth stretches right to the back of its head,

and open so wide that it can swallow prey at whole.

The slender serpent moves slowly mimicking a creeper sway

in the breeze, a perfect disguise in a world of plants.

But the draco senses danger and plays its trump card,

flexing its ribcage spreads out a membrane of skin

to make a simple but effective wing.

More than half of India's 238 species of amphibians live

in the rainforest of the Western Ghats.

Many are found nowhere else on earth.

With primitive lungs, amphibians supplement their air intake

by absorbing oxygen through their skin.

The purple or pig-nosed frog was only identified

by scientists in 2003.

It spends 50 weeks of the year buried underground.

The purple frog is unique in India.

Its closest relatives live 3,000 kilometers away

in the Seychelles.

Pig-nosed frogs are living fossils and proof

of the Western Ghats ancient origins.

There were throwback

to a time India and Africa were connected.

150 million years ago, the supercontinent Gondwana,

began to split apart,

and the triangular landmass

that is now modern India broke away.

This Indian plate drifted northwards,

over a volcanic hotspot,

boiling magma pushed up into the Earth's crust

and heated the land.

The edge of the Indian plateau morphed and faulted

into a crumpled line of mountains.

By the time India bumped into mainland Asia

and began pushing up the Himalayas,

the Western Ghats were long established

and already home to a wealth of wildlife.

It's early summer, the height of the breeding season

for king cobras.

This male is looking for a mate,

but the snake he's found is not a female,

it's a rival male.

This patch of forest isn't big enough for both of them,

it's a serpentine standoff.

They ground a warning at each other,

(snake hissing)

a low frequency hiss.

(snake hissing)

Air was sucked into their elongated lungs

and squeezed out through the mouth

as each snake constrict its body.

Neither is willing to back down.

The only option is to fight.

This is a battle of strength, not weaponry.

The huge snakes are immune to each other's venom.

Each weighs up to nine kilograms,

and uses all its might and muscle

to try and grapple the other to the ground.

(dramatic music)

Finally, the strongest snake triumphs.

The loser slinks off to find a new territory.

Tensions are running high above the first floor too.

Up in the canopy,

a new (indistinct) assert his alpha male status.

As soon as younger males start to show an interest

in his harem of the females,

the dominant male chases them out of the troop.

He's taking no chances and won't tolerate any competition.

(lively music)

It's the end of summer,

monsoon clouds have been building over the Arabian Sea,

sucking up moisture from the ocean.

Now they sweep towards land,

pulled in by the low pressure void

of India's hot, dry interior.

(thunder rumbles)

They slammed straight into the Western Ghats.

The tallest peak is Anamudi, the elephant's head.

It reaches 2,695 meters,

and is the highest point in India outside the Himalayas.

Rain-filled clouds are forced up the steep slopes

where they cool and condense.

On the Western Ghats exposed to peaks,

Nilgiri tahr brave the relentless mist and rain,

also known as cloud goats.

They're well-adapted to wet weather.

Water runs off their coarse, short hair like a rain coat,

keeping their skin warm and dry.

One of India's most ancient tribes also make their home

in the high plateau of the Western Ghats.

The Toda people are peaceful pastoralists,

buffalo herders with a reverence for the natural world.

The dome roofs of their houses mirror the rolling hills

of their homeland.

Low doorways are designed to keep out wild animals.

(wood clonks)

Milk is the main source of protein for the Toda people,

and butter was traditionally used as currency.

But buffalo were far more than a commodity,

they are sacred.

The Toda believed that the goddess Teikirshy,

created buffalo first among animals,

and then created the Toda man to care for them.

The only time a buffalo is ever killed is when a man dies.

It's believed that the buffalo's spirit,

will keep the man company on his journey to the afterlife.

The Toda believe that the next world is much like this one

but it has a harder surface.

Instead of wearing down the land,

wandering souls wear down their own legs.

When they have no limbs left, they are reborn

as Toda people or buffalo.

The Toda believe that people have lived

in the Western Ghats since the birth of humankind.

Today, there are fewer than 1,400 left,

clinging to their traditional way of life.

The Western Ghats are known locally as Sahyadris,

the benevolent mountains.

The peaks are a natural barrier

to the monsoon weather system and intercept the rains.

The Southern forests

on the Western spokes release water vapor back into the air

where it condenses and falls again as rain.

This double deluge makes these tropical jungles,

some of the wettest places in India.

Some areas received 10 meters of rainfall every year.

The rainforests team with life,

but the benevolent mountains sustained life hundreds

of kilometers away too.

The coastal plains of Kerala,

sandwiched between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats,

are some of the richest land in India.

Running from the hills, washes down to the coast,

and the rivers and streams are ladened

with fertile sediments.

Fruit seeds sprout where they fall.

Kerala's backwaters are elaborate of channels.

Rivers replaced roads.

The west coast of India is where ancient man first set foot

on the sub-continent,

and here he stayed.

Every non-African person

in the world can trace their roots back

to the first of humankind

who settled in this land of plenty.

(water roars)

Today, the beaches are still crawling midlife.

Armies of ghost crabs emerge at twilight to feed.

The tastiest morsels are found on wet sand,

but getting to them means running a gauntlet

of breaking surf.

(water roaring)

A beetle is packed with protein and worth the effort,

but crabs aren't the only hunters here.

It pays to keep one eye on the sky.

A young brahminy kite scours the shore for food.

the crab shells are almost translucent

so they can be hard to spot against the sand.

(water roars)

But to a kite with laser sharp eyesight,

ghost crabs are easy targets.

Thanks to the Western Ghats,

the rainforests and coastal plains,

get more than their fair share of rain each year.

But on the eastern side of the mountains,

it's a very different story.

The Deccan plateau is a vast expensive basalt

that comprises the main parts of Southern India.

The Western Ghats mountain range blocks monsoon clouds

and forces them to release rain on their western side.

East of the mountains, the woodlands and plains

at the plateau received just a 10th of this rainfall.

Forests here are very different from the damp, dark jungles.

The trees have broad leaves which soak up

as much sunlight as possible,

but it dropped in the dry season to conserve moisture.

Chital deer browse on the nutrient-packed leaves,

and where there are herbivores, there are hunters.

Tigers, these big cats usually hunt at night,

but with extra mouths to feed,

this mother must try and seize every opportunity she can.

(dramatic music)

But she's not always successful,

only one in 20 tiger hunt ends in a kill.

There's a much smaller

but more efficient predator at large here.

Indian wild dogs or dhole are pack animals.

They live in tight-knit groups led by an alpha pair

and are organized in a strict social hierarchy.

Every dog in the pack knows its place.

Unlike tigers, the dogs don't use scout as a strategy,

their tactic is teamwork.

Dholes whistle to keep in contact during a hunt.

Each individual has an important role to play.

They work like a well-oiled machine.

The chital's tail flashes white to warn others of danger,

but it also helps the dogs

to keep track of their (indistinct)

(dramatic music)

(animals growling)

Working together, dhole can bring down prey 10 times,

their own size

The whole pack feed on the kill together,

and it pays to be quickly.

An adult can swallow four kilos of meat,

almost a quarter of its own body weight in under an hour.

(animals growling)

Even the tigers get a meal at last.

She may have failed to make her own kill

but she's wily enough to take advantage of a rival success.

Tigers are a universal symbol of the power of nature

and they're revered throughout India.

But few go to such lengths to express their admiration

for tigers as the (indistinct) people of the Western Ghats.

Every September, during the Dussehra festival,

folk dancers from the (indistinct) tribe,

let their inner animal run wild,

and dance the Hulivesha, the tiger dance.

The dancers moves mimic the big cats stealth and power.

Lemons held in their mouths,

symbolize the animal's deadly grip on its prey.

These men have been dancing the hulivesha,

since they were children,

taught by their fathers and grandfathers.

They grew up in a village in the Western Ghats,

close to the forest and surrounded by nature.

The tiger dance is a way for them

to express their deep connection to wildlife.

Traveling around villages to perform their dance,

brings spectators from far away.

(guitar music)

it takes many hours to paint and decorate their bodies,

but the patterns were last several days.

(guitar music)

The men (indistinct) about acrobatics,

but the dance has a deeper meaning.

But hulivesha is a celebration of the wild world,

and the reminder of man's dependence on nature.

The Western Ghats keep rain away from the deck and plateau,

but the mountains still play a crucial role

in supplying it with water.

The mountains harvest rain channeling it down the hillsides

and feeding it to streams and rivers.

The uplift caused,

when the Western Ghats mountains were formed means

that all Southern India's major rivers flow west to east,

across the deck and plateau.

They include some

of the country's most spectacular waterfalls,

(water roaring)

and they are a lifeline to the whole of Southern India.

(water roaring)

They supply water to nearly a quarter of a billion people.

One of such river, the Calvary, is considered sacred.

It's known as the Ganges of the south

and worshiped all along its length.

An entire temple has been built

in the hills around the river source.

People come from all over Southern India to bathe

in this holy water.

The same family priests has been presiding,

over these rituals for nine generations.

The river is a lifeline for animals too.

It provides sanctuary for dozens of bird species.

A male egret performs an elaborate courtship display.

Special wispy feathers on his back are designed

to catch a female's eye.

It works.

But the female changes her mind

at the last minute.

Undeterred, he starts his dance again

in an attempt to win her favor and mate.

Stokes and pelicans already have young.

Hoards of hungry chicks,

wait noisily for their hardworking parents

to bring back food.

Their legs aren't strong enough for them

to stand up right yet,

and they're vulnerable on the slippery rock.

The Calvary also hide some river monsters.

A pair of eyes peeping above the water,

give one predator away.

Mugger crocodiles can grow

to be four and a half meters long.

Moving through the shallow stirs up tiny fish.

A heron takes advantage of the feeding opportunity,

but it's taking a risk.

A mugger can snatch a meal from the riverbank

in the blink of an eyes.

Fortunately, this crocodile doesn't seem hungry.

Crocodiles are cold-blooded.

They rely on the elements to maintain their body temperature

and spend plenty of time basking in the sun.

Under each bony scale is a cluster of blood vessels

that absorb heat like tiny solar panels.

Muggers can't sweat, but if they get too warm,

they release heat through their mouth.

These are social animals with a strict dominance hierarchy.

(crocodiles growling)

Males fight for supremacy over territory,

and battles can sometimes be brutal.

(dramatic music)

(birds chipping)

Two of India's giants thrive in the Western Ghats,

thanks to the river systems that originate in the mountains.

Gaur are the biggest species of wild cattle on the planet.

Adults can stand over two meters at the shoulder

and brandish horns that can be a meter long.

They're one of the world's largest land animals,

and can weigh over a ton.

Only tigers are capable of preying on these giant cows,

but gaur had been known to fight back

and kill tigers in self-defense.

The only animal here to outstrip gaur

in size are elephants.

The Western Ghats are home to the largest wild population

of Asian elephants in the world.

This female is the matriarch of her family.

She's the oldest and leads a herd of her sisters,

daughters and their young.

Elephants live in very close-knit groups.

This two months calf is taught everything he needs

to know by his family.

A mud bath is fun

but it also helps protect an elephant skin from insect bites

and acts like sunscreen.

Adult elephants need to eat over 130 kilos

of vegetation every day.

They roam great distances in a never-ending search for food.

The matriarchs knowledge of pathways,

water sources and grazing opportunities has been passed down

to her through generations.

And in turn, she too passes it on.

During the drier months,

rivers recede and expose fresh green banks of grass.

The shoots are full of nutrients,

and elephants gather from far and wide

to picnic on these lawns.

A mouthful of mud may not seem advertising

but it supplements an elephant's mineral intake.

Elephants roam all over the Western Ghats

but their wonderings bring them dangerously close

to another inhabitant.

Man benefits from the incredible productivity

of the rain-soaked western slopes.

Spices such as black pepper and cardamom are cultivated

in huge quantities here,

fueling India's historic spice trade.

And the fertile hills provide the ideal climate

for one particular type of camellia, tea.

The slopes are a patchwork of plantations.

A century ago, unbroken forest stretched

for 150,000 square kilometers,

across the Western Ghats.

Today, scattered fragments make up less than 13,000.

The region's high rainfall,

means tea fields need never be irrigated.

And the sloping landscape keeps their roots,

from getting waterlogged.

It's perfect tea country,

but the state disrupt ancient animal migration routes,

and elephants have no choice, but to cross the plantations.

They don't eat the tea

but sometimes they do cause damage to villages,

as many as 400 people are killed by elephants

in India every year.

Gaur also visit tea plantations.

In this organic tea field where no herbicides are used,

gaur provide a very useful service.

They graze on weeds that grow between the rows of tea,

keeping the plantation clear.

Gaur and elephant venture out of the forest,

but lion-tailed macaques never cross cultivated areas.

Small groups are isolated

in the remaining patches of forest.

This baby is the newest addition

to a macaque family led by a dominant male.

She will stay with the troop all her life fitting

into the hierarchy as she gets older.

But this young male,

will eventually break away from his family

and join a bachelor group.

He's already showing signs of independence.

(whimsical music)

The little male investigates every nook and cranny looking

for things to eat.

(whimsical music)

As well as fruit and seeds,

insects, birds, eggs and lizards are all

on the macaques menu.

They'll even eat young squirrels

if they find an unguarded nest.

This older macaque has found a good meal.

He quickly and quietly gathers as much food as possible,

before more dominant troop member claims the supply.

His extendable cheek pouches can hold

as much as his stomach.

Up in the canopy, he can finish his meal in peace,

but his future is uncertain.

The balance between man and animals,

is becoming increasingly fragile.

As India gallops forward into the 21st century

and its population edges over 1.2 billion,

it's getting harder to make space for wildlife.

The crops and spices harvested on the slopes

of the Western Ghats are exported all over the world.

From Kerala's back quarters,

they're sent out across the Indian ocean,

the birthplace of the monsoon rains

that plays such a vital role in the mountains biodiversity.

The benevolent mountains have plenty to give,

but man could be taking too much.

Lion-tailed macaques only live here in the rainforest

of the Western Ghats.

They're one of the most endangered primates in the world.

Less than 1% of their original habitat survives.

It's only in the last century

that the Western Ghats have been exploited by man.

People have been living in harmony with nature here

for 12,000 years.

Surrounded by such biodiversity,

they see themselves as part of the natural world.

But sharing space with some forest animals can be risky.

This family have had to evacuate their house.

There's an unwanted guest making itself at home

in their kitchen, a king cobra,

but help is on the way.

Gowri Shankar is a local snake handler.

He works to keep king cobras

and people safe from each other.

In many parts of Asia,

fear of deadly snakes means they're often killed on site.

Gowri and his colleague, Prashanth,

plan to take this one alive.

Here in the Western Ghats,

most people are remarkably tolerant

of living alongside such a daunting reptile.

Many believe king cobras control the thunder and rain,

something they see plenty of.

They are revered as goddesses of fertility,

harming them is taboo.

But extracting a four meter cobra from its hiding place,

under the eaves is no easy task.

Although they don't attack humans as prey,

a king cobra can be a dangerous house guest.

One bite packs enough poison to kill 20 men.

It's out of the house, but that's only half the battle.

Cobra's like to hide in dark corners,

and Gowri hopes this one will slink

into the sack he's prepared,

but it's proving to be uncooperative.

(snake hisses)

The snake's reactions are lightning fast

and it has a strike distance of two meters,

Gowri is well within range.

A change of tactic,

finally gets the mighty snake under control.

Gowri and Prashanth rescue an average

of 22 king cobras from situations like this every year.

The snake is taken a safe distance away from the village

and released back to the forest.

King cobras are an icon of the Western Ghats surviving

in an ancient ecosystem

and protected by the reverence of man.

The Western Ghats is one

of the world's most remarkable biodiversity hotspots,

intercepting monsoon clouds and harvesting rainfall.

The mountains have a profound effect

on the climate of Southern India.

They are home to wild creatures,

from flying lizards and deadly snakes

to endangered primates and formidable hunters.

Humans have lived alongside animals here for millennia,

but the 20th century has taken its toll

on this ancient ecosystem.

Much of its forest has been destroyed

to make room for crop cultivation,

and many species are now staring extinction in the face.

But the spirit of the hulivesha tiger dance runs deep

in the indigenous people of the Western Ghats,

and they do make room for wild animals.

There is plenty for everyone here

as long as man continues to find his niche

without destroying that of others.

(upbeat music)