Wildlife Conservation

How India’s First Conservation Success Came to Be

India’s first conservation success - the rhino in Kaziranga - came from sustained measures by Assam’s political class and by accommodating rural rights. In the 1970s, such models gave way to more…
▶20-Mar-2023
Biswajit Sarmah

Humans and Wildlife at the Forest's Edge

Questions of human-wildlife coexistence are invariably also questions of development. A spar between villagers and foresters over trapping a leopard outside a sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh some years…
▶13-Feb-2023
Rekha Warrier

How to Trap a Cheetah (And Why You Shouldn’t Have)

Cheetahs were highly prized in medieval and colonial India. They were trapped to meet the demand from royalty, a practice that continued well into the 19th century, leading to their ultimate…
▶09-Feb-2023
Raza Kazmi

Reforming How India Governs the Human-Wildlife Interface

Many low-income communities in India face serious burdens because the Wildlife Act prohibits killing certain wild species. The challenge is to reform wildlife management in a practical way while…
▶03-Jan-2023
Nitin Sekar, Aritra Kshettry, Mandvi Gaur, Vidya Athreya

Pitting People against Nature

India’s conservation laws, based on pseudoscience, have criminalised people’s defence against marauding wildlife. Democratically-constituted local bodies empowered to protect nature will be a more…
▶08-Dec-2021
Madhav Gadgil