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 relationship with the land.
According to the study, the community uses 51 native tree species belonging to 41 genera and 25 plant families to treat a wide range of ailments. Fevers, coughs, dysentery, skin infections, joint pain, diabetes, snake bites and scorpion stings are among the conditions addressed using remedies derived from bark, leaves and fruits.
The community relies on seasonal calendars, Indigenous classifications of plants and animals, and ecological indicators that help them interpret environmental change. Photograph: (Oindrila Soni)
What stands out is the precision behind this knowledge.
Community elders understand which species grow in particular habitats, when medicinal properties are strongest and how seasonal variations influence the effectiveness of different remedies.
Researchers describe this as Traditional Ecological Knowledge, or TEK: a knowledge system rooted in long-term interaction with local ecosystems.
TEK is practical, place-based science rooted in lived experience.
The Mahadev Kolis do not protect the forest because they see it as separate from their lives. They protect it because their health, livelihoods and future are tied to its well-being.
Reading the forest like a weather report
Ask a Mahadev Koli elder about the changing climate, and the answer may not come in the form of rainfall statistics.
Instead, it may begin with a tree that flowered later than usual. Or a bird that arrived earlier. Or a medicinal plant that has become harder to find.
The community relies on seasonal calendars, Indigenous classifications of plants and animals, and ecological indicators that help them interpret environmental change.
While satellites and weather stations offer a bird’s-eye view of landscapes, communities such as the Mahadev Kolis provide a ground-level understanding of how ecosystems are changing day by day.
They notice shifts that often escape conventional monitoring systems. They know which streams are losing water, which plants are declining and how changing weather patterns affect both crops and forests.
Conservation woven into everyday life
The Mahadev Kolis may never describe themselves as conservationists. Yet, conservation is woven into everyday life.
For generations, the community has relied on its understanding of which plants heal, when the seasons are shifting, how wildlife patterns are changing, and how natural resources can be used with care.
Today, as governments and conservation groups look for ways to protect ecosystems and build climate resilience, many researchers are turning their attention to tribes like the Mahadev Kolis.
The young rapper turning climate concerns into music
The Mahadev Kolis do not just live alongside nature; many are also emerging as its advocates.
One such voice is Madhura Ghane, popularly known as Mahi G, an engineer-turned-rapper in her early 20s from the Mahadev Koli community. Through her music, she is taking conversations about forests, tribal rights and climate justice far beyond her village in Maharashtra.
Her debut rap,Jungle Cha Raja, celebrated the deep relationship between Indigenous communities and forests while questioning the forces threatening both. Since then, her songs have addressed issues ranging from climate change and environmental destruction to social equality and the rights of marginalised communities.
Through tracks like Heatwave, she turns climate statistics into stories people can feel and relate to.
What a travel vlogger learnt from the Mahadev Kolis
When travel vlogger and writer Oindrila Soni spent time in Purushwadi, a village inhabited by the Mahadev Koli community in Maharashtra’s Sahyadris, she expected to learn about a tribal way of life. What stayed with her, however, were the values that shaped it.
In her account of the visit from 2018, Soni observed a community that was largely self-sufficient, with families growing much of their own food and keeping cows, goats and hens for daily needs. She was struck by the care shown towards animals, the strength and leadership of women, and the strong sense of community that bound the village together.
What stood out most was the absence of excess.
For generations, the community has relied on its understanding of which plants heal, when the seasons are shifting, how wildlife patterns are changing, and how natural resources can be used with care. Photograph: (Oindrila Soni)
Crops were grown based on what families needed to eat, food came directly from farm to plate, and neighbours routinely helped one another with farming and household work.
The hidden lesson
The W-CReS study, too, suggests that Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) deserves greater recognition within climate adaptation and conservation planning.
And what the Mahadev Kolis ultimately teach us is that conservation begins with relationship, alongside regulation.
So what can the rest of us learn from the Mahadev Kolis?
Perhaps the most important lesson is that conservation is also about building a relationship with nature long before it is in danger.
For generations, the Mahadev Kolis have lived by taking only what they need, understanding the rhythms of the seasons and recognising that the health of people and the health of nature are deeply connected.
