Before a medicinal tree blooms, they know it. Before a stream begins to shrink after a weak monsoon, they notice it.

Before a changing season appears in climate data, they can often sense it in the forest.

They are the Indigenous, forest-dwelling Mahadev Koli tribe in Maharashtra.

Living in the Western Ghats, one of the world's richest biodiversity hotspots, the community has spent generations learning from the land around them. They know when the rains are changing, which plants signal a shifting season, and how forests respond to environmental stress.

For the Mahadev Kolis, this understanding is a way of life, shaped by centuries of farming, foraging,  and living alongside nature.

Yet, beyond the forests they call home, few people have heard of the Mahadev Kolis or the knowledge they carry. 

In 2025, a study by the WOTR–Watershed Organisation Trust's Centre for Resilience Studies (W-CReS) documented a small part of this vast knowledge system, drawing attention to the community's deep understanding of medicinal plants, biodiversity and environmental change. 

But for the Mahadev Kolis, these lessons have long been part of everyday life.

As climate change forces governments, scientists and conservationists to search for ways to build resilience, their story is a reminder that some of the most valuable environmental knowledge may already exist within communities that have been observing and adapting to nature for generations.

For the Mahadev Kolis, the forest is the first doctor

Traditionally hunter-gatherers and warriors, the community today is largely engaged in agriculture. Families cultivate rice, finger millet, barnyard millet and wheat while also rearing livestock and producing dairy products.

But farming is only one part of their........

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