India

Sloth bear-human coexistence in Marwahi

India /

The dry deciduous forests of Northern Chhattisgarh host one of India’s largest sloth bear populations. But unfortunately, sloth bears don’t have a good reputation here. Quite the contrary, they are considered by many to be one of the most dangerous wild animals in the area.

Conservationists are now trying to identify the last islands with substantial bear populations in the region of Marwahi. But what will it take to protect Marwahi’s decreasing sloth bear population in a highly cultivated landscape?

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A thirteen-year battle to save the Hasdeo forests from coal mining

India /

The forests of Hasdeo are called the lungs of India’s Chhattisgarh state. Sadly for its inhabitants, Hasdeo grows atop of a huge coalfield, and the government decided to start mining it. Fast forward thirteen years, the Save Hasdeo movement is fighting tirelessly against the total diminishment of the natural ecosystem of Hasdeo.

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What will the world’s largest refinery planned in Konkan do to local livelihoods and the environment?

India /

Destroying 12.000-year-old prehistoric petroglyphs for an oil refinery that will best (or worst) case scenario run for the next 50 years – this is what the Maharashtra government plans by erecting the world’s largest refinery in the Konkan region. However, locals are enraged.

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Living with big cats 

India /

Before we arrived in India, we had a certain eurocentric picture of human-wildlife conflict and its challenging mitigation. Unfortunately, where humans and large carnivores share space, a diversity of conflicts can emerge. And across Europe, there is a low tolerance for the presence of these species.

So what can we expect as we reach the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which is regarded as the second most affected state by human-tiger conflicts in the whole country?

What needs to be done to make sure humans and big cats coexist peacefully now and in the future? Nowhere is this question more evident than in India, where around 32 million people are already living as next-door-neighbors to tigers in a country that hosts over 70% of the world’s remaining wild tigers.

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