Nature as technology

The Western Ghats are India’s most powerful irrigation system and cooling technology

India’s incredible nature

The Western Ghats run along the coast of India from Gujarat down to Tamil Nadu and were formed when India split off from Madagascar during the breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana around 90 million years ago. The ecosystem around the Western Ghats is an evolutionary boundary, where the biomes of Africa and India meet and blend, making it one of the planet’s richest biodiversity hotspots.

Southern Western Ghats, image taken by Sugandha, January 2025

Rethinking nature as technology

The word “technology” is often reserved for man-made capital. However, “natural capital” can be just as, if not more, technologically advanced. The forests of the Western Ghats are a case in point: they are India’s most important irrigation system, cooling technology, and pharmacy. Let’s explore how.

Monsoon mountains and irrigation

The forests of the Western Ghats regulate the monsoon. Evapotranspiration from the vegetation over the Western Ghats accounts for a quarter of the rainfall over peninsular India. Since around half of all Indian agriculture is rain-fed, this ecosystem is effectively one of the world’s largest and most important irrigation systems.

Rivers in the air that cool the country

The forests of the Western Ghats are misty, a subtle reminder that water flows not only on the ground in the form of rivers but also through the air, as moisture. These airborne rivers are supported by the dense forests and vegetation below. However, as this greenery disappears, so does the moisture, resulting in weaker rains. These rains bring much-needed relief in the face of scorching summer temperatures. They cool the entire subcontinent like giant air conditioners, helping millions of Indians survive summer.

Forest pharmacy

There are many plants and animal species that can be found nowhere else in the world apart from the Western Ghats. There are already indigenous uses of the many medicinal plants located in the Western Ghats. For example, Gurmar (gymnema sylvestre), a woody climbing shrub native to the forests of the Western Ghats, reduces the absorption of sugar in the intestines and increases insulin production. It has been used in Ayurveda as an anti-diabetic and its very name means “sugar destroyer”. Other popular medicines trace their origins to the wild, including aspirin, whose source was the willow bark and quinine, a malaria treatment that came from the Cinchona tree. Yet, we have only scratched the surface of what the Western Ghats may have to offer.

A threatened ecosystem and false dichotomy

Deforestation and encroachment are problems in the forests of the Western Ghats. Native species like the Nilgiri tahr are now endangered, with fewer than 3,500 individuals remaining in the wild due to habitat loss and fragmentation. Environmentalism and economic growth are often pitted against each other. Yet, I think this is a false dichotomy.

The forests of the Western Ghats underpin life and agriculture on the Indian peninsula, providing water, cooling, and irrigation services at a scale human technology cannot replicate. While air conditioners cool confined spaces, these ecosystems regulate the ambient temperature of the planet’s second largest peninsula, which is also one of the most densely populated areas on Earth. As the planet warms, protecting and regenerating these natural systems is the best adaptation technology we have got — and it is completely free.

It is time we view natural capital as technology in its own right. We need to re-generate ecosystems and re-conceptualise the role of nature in the economy. This starts with using words like “technology” not just for machines but for natural ecosystems that deliver vital services on awe-inspiring scales.

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Video from the Western Ghats Karnataka taken by Sugandha (turn the sound on).

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