India is embarking on a bold new era in wildlife conservation, blending policy innovation with cutting-edge technology to protect its forests and the creatures that inhabit them. As the country faces mounting pressures from habitat loss, climate change, and rising human-wildlife conflict, officials and scientists are reimagining what it means to safeguard biodiversity in the world’s most populous nation.
On August 17, 2025, the Maharashtra state government unveiled a sweeping proposal: the ‘Chief Minister Forest and Environment Conservation Scheme’. As reported by Hindustan Times, this policy aims to lease private agricultural land for tree plantation, with the ambitious goal of raising forest cover from the current 19% to a projected 33%. The plan also seeks to reduce man-animal conflict by expanding tiger corridors beyond forest buffer zones, a move designed to give big cats more room to roam and reduce the risk of deadly encounters with villagers and farmers.
“This would help increase forest cover to 33% from the existing 19%, and also create corridors for wild animals resulting in reducing man-animal conflict,” an agriculture department officer told Hindustan Times. The scheme allows for a range of options: farmers can lease land near forests for eco-tourism projects on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis, or join group farming initiatives through Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) to collectively market their produce. For those willing to lease land for tree plantation, the government is offering an annual subsidy of ₹65,000 per hectare, while additional subsidies of ₹25,000 to ₹30,000 per hectare are being provided for growing environment-friendly, government-recommended crops.
The policy, currently under consideration, is designed to be flexible. Farmers may choose to sell their land at market rates to the government, which plans to create a land bank for future conservation or as substitutes for forest land used by private industrial projects. “The policy has multiple options from farming to eco-tourism, forestation that will ultimately result in increasing forest cover and reducing man-animal conflict. Agricultural lands that are currently unutilised could be used for a noble cause and with incentives to farmers and locals,” said Ashis Jaiswal, Maharashtra’s minister of state for agriculture.
The government’s approach is not without its critics. Suresh Chopane, environmentalist and founder of the Chandrapur-based NGO Green Planet Society, welcomed the initiative but cautioned, “It is not easy for farmers to give up their land as they do not get what is assured by the government. Secondly, too many commercial activities like tourism and construction of hotels, ultimately lead to more man-animal conflict and illegal encroachments due to a nexus of the forest officers. The government will have to ensure that a perfect balance is achieved.”
While policy provides the framework, it is technology that is transforming the day-to-day realities of conservation across India. In March 2025, a dramatic incident unfolded in Lucknow’s Rehmankheda area, where a four-year-old tiger had been terrorizing 12 villages, killing 25 animals and keeping residents indoors for months. As detailed by The New Indian Express, forest officials deployed a high-tech arsenal: AI-powered thermal cameras at five strategic points, three thermal drones scanning the forest canopy, and even trained elephants to navigate dense undergrowth. A wildlife expert in Bengaluru monitored live camera feeds to anticipate the tiger’s movements. When the tiger finally returned to a fresh kill, rangers moved in, tranquilized the 230 kg animal, and transported it safely—without a single human injury. The operation was a testament to the power of combining artificial intelligence, aerial surveillance, and boots-on-the-ground expertise.
This fusion of tradition and technology is becoming the new normal. Across the high-altitude deserts of Ladakh, researchers trekked over 6,000 kilometers and installed 956 camera traps to monitor snow leopards—then turned to AI software to sort through half a million images, identifying individual animals by their unique forehead patterns. The resulting photographic library, published in PLOS One, revealed a thriving snow leopard population and established India’s first national photo archive for the species.
Elsewhere, technology is saving lives on a daily basis. In Tamil Nadu, the Coimbatore Forest Division installed AI-powered thermal cameras along a notorious 7-kilometer railway stretch, where 11 elephants had died in train collisions since 2008. In its first year, the system generated over 5,000 alerts and enabled 2,500 safe elephant crossings—without a single death. In Maharashtra’s Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, AI-enabled cameras installed on the edges of 13 villages send real-time alerts to residents when tigers are nearby, a system so effective that it was mentioned by Prime Minister Modi on his radio show.
Drones are also being used in innovative ways: in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district, thermal drones track elephant herds and help prevent crop raids, easing tensions between wildlife and local communities. In Gujarat, drones photograph mugger crocodiles from above, and AI software identifies individuals by their unique scute patterns—a kind of reptilian fingerprint.
But the technological revolution doesn’t stop at the forest edge. In the coral-rich waters of Lakshadweep, scientists from the CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography conducted India’s first environmental DNA (eDNA) study in 2024, filtering seawater to identify genetic traces left by marine organisms. This approach revealed a wealth of biodiversity—four coral families, nine echinoderm species, 19 fish species, and a host of arthropods, mollusks, sponges, and algae—giving conservationists a powerful new tool for monitoring reef health.
On the eastern front, eDNA techniques in West Bengal’s wetlands helped researchers from ICAR detect invasive Nile tilapia, a hardy African fish threatening native species. In Rajasthan, LiDAR-equipped drones are mapping the spread of Prosopis juliflora, an invasive shrub choking out native grasses and altering the soil’s chemistry. “This level of detail helped us map the vertical complexity and biomass accumulation of Prosopis with far greater accuracy than traditional field surveys,” said Chetan Misher, an ecologist with the Wildlife Conservation Trust.
Despite these advances, the challenges are formidable. India loses over 668,000 hectares of forest each year, second only to Brazil, and climate-driven disasters like wildfires are on the rise. Between 2019 and 2024, 2,727 people were killed in elephant encounters, and 349 in tiger attacks. Wildlife deaths from collisions, electrocutions, and poisoning remain stubbornly high. Technology, while powerful, is not a panacea. Equipment can fail, data can be overwhelming without skilled analysts, and local communities sometimes view new tools with suspicion.
Yet, as India pledges to conserve 30% of its land and water by 2030, the integration of policy, community engagement, and technology offers hope. Conservation is no longer just about patrolling with sticks and notebooks; it’s about networks of sensors, satellite data, real-time alerts, and the wisdom of those who know the land best. In this race against time, every tool counts—and every step forward could mean the difference between survival and silence for India’s wild heartlands.
