The fact that he knows Kanha and its topography like the back of his hand makes him crucial to the park's anti-poaching, fire fighting and monitoring efforts. It is doubtful that any living person knows more about this world famous tiger reserve than Manglu Baiga. Manglu Baiga was born in the jungles of Kanha in the mid-1940s, and has spent his entire life there.

tigers, elephants, lion-tailed macaques and people. Since June 2003, he has been the target of harassment by those who place the value of iron ore above our natural heritage, with false cases being filed against him. But he remains undaunted and totally committed to saving the rainforests of the Western Ghats.

Charudutt is currently working to establish the first high-altitude wildlife reserve in Tawang and West Kameng. Aparajita runs a conservation programme in Namdapha, where she is trying to integrate the Lisu community in wildlife monitoring and protection. She also helps train and employ former Nishi hunters to monitor hornbills.

Thanks to his bravery, and that of his colleagues, the number of rhinos poached fell from 25 in 1992 to six in 1996. Sharma was personally involved in seven armed encounters, resulting in the deaths of 13 poachers. Ignoring risks to his life and family, he helped secure the future of Kaziranga, which today has over 1,800 rhinos.

A villager who lives around the park, he helps improve relations between villagers and the forest department. He believes that the national park is the heritage of the children of Bharatpur, explaining to villagers that the resident and migratory birds bring respect and income to the community.

Wangchuk has also designed the SECMOL campus, which runs on solar energy and uses no fossil fuels for cooking, lighting or heating, even when temperatures fall to minus 25 degrees. He now shares this technology with schools across Ladakh.

He is writing two books on the birds of Kaziranga and Assam. Maan also works with young persons to promote tourism that is sensitive to wildlife and to develop in them natural history skills they could use to defend Assam’s wildlife.

In 2002, he travelled to Thailand to learn how to handle king cobras. He now rescues snakes from human habitations. These incidents resulted in a second book ‘The Call of the Snake’ in 2003. He is currently back at school, doing his M.Sc. in ecology and the environment, while writing on wildlife and snake awareness issues for local newspapers.

He has worked on the ecology of the dog-faced water snake in the Sálim Ali Bird Sanctuary, Goa. He will soon be starting work in the Gulf of Mannar, studying the area’s sea snake population and the threats they face.Sea snakes are Aaron Lobo’s obsession. In 2001, while earning his Bachelor of Science degree, he conducted a one year dissertation project on the distribution and status of snakes in four different areas in Goa.

He has worked on surveys of the submergence zone of the proposed Upper Tapi Stage II dam in Melghat and the Human dam that threatens the Tadoba Tiger Reserve. He is working with the Satpuda Foundation to ensure just and proper resettlement of six villages that have chosen to move out of the Tadoba Tiger Reserve.