The land‐use change is identified as one of the most important reasons for biodiversity loss and is a major concern for the conservation of terrestrial biodiversity. It is critical to understand the effects of changes in the land‐use patterns in maintaining the insect communities to formulate better conservation strategies. We have explored how land‐use changes influence the ant diversity in the evergreen forests of the Western Ghats (India). The ants were sampled from a previously identified trajectory of land‐use in Sringeri taluk, Karnataka, viz. reserve (evergreen) forests, Soppinabetta (community managed forests), degraded Soppinabetta turned to scrub, and Acacia plantations. Repeated sampling was done during pre‐monsoon (April–May), postmonsoon (September–October) and summer (February–March) using pitfall traps. We captured a total of 21,279 ants belonging to 99 species. Our results indicate that, ant communities do not respond to disturbance or habitat change through simple reduction of species richness or abundance but the responses are more complex and driven by various parameters. Atmospheric temperature is the single largest component that explains maximum change in ant community composition and abundance.