Feature image courtesy: Shreya Mohan

At first light, the forest stirs quietly in parts of Wayanad. A tribal woman heads out with a basket on her back, nodding gently as a group of langurs scamper across her path. In the distant grasslands of Rajasthan, a Bishnoi elder offers water to a lone blackbuck grazing near his fields. And far away in Meghalaya, in the village of Mawlynnong — reputed to be Asia’s cleanest — the early morning silence is punctuated by the hum of bees and birdsong, not traffic.

These scenes are not exceptions, but everyday realities in some parts of India, where the relationship between humans and wildlife is one of harmony, not conflict.

In a world constantly grappling with ecological imbalance and rising human-wildlife tensions, these communities have preserved a way of life that respects, protects, and even celebrates nature’s wildest creatures.

In these corners of the country, conservation is not just a policy, it is lived wisdom, passed down through generations. Rooted in indigenous knowledge, spiritual beliefs, and an acute understanding of coexistence, these places are quiet reminders that it is possible to live without fences, without fear, and with a lot more compassion.

Here are five such inspiring places across India where humans and wildlife live not just side by side, but in kinship.

1. In Bishnoi villages, animals are sacred kin

In the arid desert landscapes of Rajasthan, the........

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