The Better India · 20 days ago

How a Mountaineer Worked with Villagers in Purulia to Protect 18 Striped Hyenas

A mountaineer heard a call in the dark that would not let him go. What began as Joydeep Chakraborty's solitary search for striped hyenas in Purulia's forests became something larger when he understood that protecting a vanishing species meant first changing how villagers saw the animal killing their goats. Walking twenty-five kilometers a day through the hills, he earned trust slowly-sharing meals, learning from tribal guides, listening to losses-until conversations shifted from retaliation to recognition. "We used to kill hyenas if we saw them near our huts," one villager recalls. "Now we protect them." Years of patient presence have yielded eighteen hyenas where once there were killings, proof that conservation grows not from data alone, but from the quiet work of becoming part of a place.