Chorla Ghats: A Monsoon Field Record

The Western Ghats are one of eight biodiversity hotspots on earth. They are also one of the least visually documented — not for lack of species, but for lack of patience. Most of what lives here moves at night, hides in leaf litter, and measures its body length in centimetres.

This essay focuses on the Chorla Ghats — a transitional zone in northern Goa where the northern and southern Western Ghats meet, and where the density of endemic amphibian and reptile species is among the highest on the subcontinent. The work was photographed across two monsoon seasons in 2024 and 2025, on foot, at night, in rain.

It is an incomplete document. The Ghats are not fully mapped and neither is this essay and is supposed to grow with time.

Commissioned by: Independent work. Ongoing.