When it comes to human-wildlife conflict, India is at the forefront of creative, community-based solutions. The country’s 1.4 billion people coexist with large, far-roaming animals that are increasingly squeezed for space and resources. This inevitably leads to humans and wildlife butting heads, as humans move into places like historic tiger hunting grounds or elephant migratory corridors, and animals venture into human settlements to snack on livestock and crops. But across India, community conservationists are forging new paths to coexistence.
A Country of Remarkable Biodiversity
The Indian subcontinent contains a vast array of ecosystems, from mountainous tundra to tropical rainforests, and from deserts to wetlands. These diverse habitats are home to some of the most iconic species on the planet, including over 60% of Asian elephants, more than 70% of wild tigers, and all of the world’s Asiatic lions. India also has some of the world’s more unusual wildlife, like the golden langur and then greater adjutant stork.
But all of these ecosystems are feeling the pressure of a rapidly expanding human population. Since the mid-1960s, India’s human population has grown by nearly a billion people. That takes a toll on natural resources — in the past decade alone, people have cut down nearly 6,000 square miles of India’s forests, an area more than twice the size of the Everglades. And remaining forests are increasingly fragmented, making it challenging for wildlife to roam freely.
Luckily, there have also been some bright spots for India’s wildlife. Conservation actions at the national and community levels have made a real difference for many species, preserving key habitats they need to thrive.
A Growing Conservation Movement
A big milestone in India’s modern conservation movement came in 1955, with the creation of India’s first national park, a tiger sanctuary called Jim Corbett National Park. This was followed by the official designation of Gir National Park in 1965, which protected the world’s last remaining population of Asiatic lions.
But the numbers of many of India’s large mammals continued to fall, so India passed the Wildlife Protection Act banning the hunting of most animals in 1972. The country also launched Project Tiger, an effort to save one of India’s most iconic species.
Project Tiger created a network of reserves around the country that protected tigers and their forest habitat. In the 50 years since its launch, India has created around 50 tiger reserves that protect nearly 30,000 square miles of forest. As a result, tiger numbers in the country have doubled.
But action isn’t just taking place at the national level. Cultural connections to wildlife go back hundreds or even thousands of years in India, and conservationists are tapping into these shared values to encourage communities to make space for wild species and their habitats.
Towards of Future of Community-led Conservation
On the coast of Gujarat, spiritual leader Morari Bapu advocates for the protection of whale sharks by appealing to Hindu religious teachings and Indian cultural traditions. Bapu compares the sharks’ annual migration to its breeding grounds to a local cultural practice in which daughters return to their parents’ home to give birth to their children. Thanks to his teachings, and support from the Wildlife Trust of India, fishermen have freed hundreds of whale sharks entangled in their nets.
On the other side of India, in Assam, biologist Purnima Barman has turned a once-reviled stork into a community icon. There, she appealed to women of the community to protect greater adjutant storks by throwing baby showers for stork hatchlings. Today, 10,000 women across the region have banded together to protect stork nesting trees and help raise hatchlings, and the population of this strange bird has rebounded.
Elsewhere, communities are supplementing national park protections by making space for wildlife corridors. In one village, this means using AI to detect tigers near a village to give farmers time to move their livestock to safety. In another, it meant moving the whole village a few miles away to avoid blocking an elephant migration corridor.
To learn more about these inspiring stories of community conservation in India, check out our Wild Hope episodes spotlighting India!
Stork Sisters
When biologist Purnima Devi Barman witnessed villagers chop down a tree filled with greater adjutant stork nests, she launched a grassroots effort to do something about it.
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AI of the Tiger
In Madhya Pradesh, renowned as India’s “tiger state,” a team installs AI-integrated camera traps to reduce conflict and safeguard lives in a vital wildlife corridor home to 2 million people — and 300 wild tigers.
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Whale Shark Homecoming
Watch Whale Shark Homecoming Now
Along the coast of Gujarat, India, a renowned spiritual leader is inspiring fishermen to become guardians of the world’s biggest fish: the endangered whale shark.
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Way of the Elephants
Watch Way of the Elephants Now
When a village realized it was in the middle of an elephant corridor, the community decided on a bold solution: move the entire village.
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