India is a mega-diversity country that is particularly rich in vertebrate fauna. This is a result of its unique biogeography, and, evolutionary and social histories it has faunal elements from the Indo-Malayan, Afro-tropical and palearctic regions. For example out of the 226 extant carnivore species in the world, 52 species - ranging from lions, hyenas, tigers, wolves, snow leopards, leopards and 3 species of bears - occur in India, with even the cheetah being extirpated only fifty years ago.



The country has an ancient culture that views humans as a part of nature rather than as its masters; that shows a higher degree of toleration for other life forms compared to any other part of the world. Partly as a result - and partly due to India's colonial history - several effectively protected nature reserves have been established during the last thirty years. These now cover about 3% of the land area. However, there are formidable challenges to 'saving wildlife' in India: a billion strong human population largely dependent on land-based occupations; high degree of reliance on biomass for fuel, energy and structural materials; excessive livestock densities - all now supplemented by a modern consumerist economy growing at 6% a year; rapidly changing cultures and attitudes towards wildlife. However, the major social and ecological transformation that we are now seeing in rest of the tropical world - such as forest conversation and fragmentation - had occurred in India over a thousand years ago.



In this context, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), India program focuses on charismatic endangered megafauna in protected reserves (the last wild places) - as the most appropriate social tactic for saving biodiversity. During its 13 years of development, WCS-India program has blossomed from a single research project to encompass all the major strategies now pursued by WCS globally: Research; Capacity Building; Policy Interventions and Site-based conservation.