Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit Tiger Reserve—home to one of India’s richest tiger populations—has found an inspiring way to reduce human-tiger conflict. A group of trained local volunteers, known as Bagh Mitras, are quietly transforming the relationship between villagers and wildlife, proving that coexistence is possible when communities lead from the front.
Launched in 2019 by WWF-India, the Bagh Mitra programme trains villagers living near forests to act as first responders whenever a tiger is sighted or a conflict arises. Their job is simple but critical—calm the crowd, inform the forest department, guide villagers to safety, and ensure the tiger finds its way back without harm.
The First Line of Peacekeepers
People like Atul Singh, whose family has tracked wildlife for generations, now use their skills not to hunt—but to protect both people and tigers. His grandfather once responded to conflicts as a hunter. Atul responds as a mediator.
Similarly, schoolteacher Shyam Bihari remembers 2017, when angry farmers blocked a highway after a tiger killed a villager. Tension was rising, but lack of guidance made things worse. The Bagh Mitra programme now ensures such situations are handled calmly, preventing panic and violence.
Before this initiative, villagers often didn’t know who to call or what to do when a tiger walked into a sugarcane field. Today, they call the Bagh Mitras first.
Training That Makes a Difference
Each Bagh Mitra learns:
◆how to identify wildlife using pugmarks, scratches, droppings
◆how to communicate field information quickly
◆crowd control and rescue basics
◆GPS mapping and camera trap installation
This training helps them manage real situations. From 2020 to June 2025, they reported 977 conflict incidents in farmland and villages—most resolved peacefully.
Changing Mindsets, One Village at a Time
The biggest victory of this programme is not just safety—it is trust. Bagh Mitras run awareness sessions in villages and schools. Children who once feared tigers now see them as part of nature. Farmers who once demanded that tigers be killed now understand how to avoid confrontations.
This shift is so positive that Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the programme for showing a “new model of coexistence.”
A Shared Home
The message is simple:
The forest belongs to both—people and tigers.
By teaching empathy, communication, and awareness, UP’s Bagh Mitras are proving that peaceful coexistence is not a dream—it is happening every single day in Pilibhit.
