As India advances toward Viksit Bharat 2047, the choices it makes about its natural ecosystems will be as consequential as the infrastructure it builds or the industries it nurtures. Can a country of 1.4 billion people, urbanising rapidly and expanding its economy at pace, also be a country where tigers roam, lions persist, and wild spaces are protected alongside development? India’s record over the past three decades suggests the answer is yes. The task now is to turn a conservation achievement into a globally relevant model of coexistence. It is in that spirit that India launched the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA), bringing together range-countries for a shared commitment to protect the world’s most iconic species.

As wildlife populations grow and habitats improve, a new challenge is emerging: the geography of human and animal life is increasingly overlapping. Crop loss, livestock predation and, in some cases, direct threat to human life are placing real pressure on the people who live closest to India’s wild spaces. But these pressures are also, in many cases, a reflection of successful conservation outcomes: As habitats become better protected and populations grow, interactions between people and animals naturally increase.

Compensation schemes, buffer zones, and wildlife corridors remain important components of India’s conservation framework. But as wildlife populations recover and economic development reaches deeper into natural landscapes, the question is no longer simply how to mitigate conflict, but how to create conditions where people and wildlife can coexist across shared landscapes over the long term.

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