The Forest That Refused to Be Forgotten
A personal reflection on two decades of rhino recovery in Manas National Park, Assam There are landscapes that change your career, and there are landscapes that change your life. For me, Manas National Park has been both. When I first entered Manas more than two decades ago, it was a place carrying the scars of conflict and uncertainty. The silence of its forests was different not the peaceful silence of wilderness, but the silence left behind after wildlife had disappeared, protection systems had weakened, and hope had become fragile. Many people believed Manas had lost its future. Yet, standing in those grasslands beneath the Bhutan hills, I felt the landscape still had something to say. This is the story of how that silence slowly turned into the sound of recovery. Manas is one of the world's most extraordinary protected areas. Stretching across the Himalayan foothills along the India–Bhutan border, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site renowned for its rich grasslands, wetlands,...