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All are endangered, elusive and increasingly protected not just by formal conservationists, but by the very communities that share their landscapes. 

Sahjeevan, a Bhuj-based organization, is flipping the script on conservation. Their approach is simple. Treat communities as knowledge holders, protectors, and key stakeholders rather than outsiders to the solution. Through deep engagement with pastoral, forest-dwelling, and agro-pastoral groups, Sahjeevan has created a model where conservation is locally rooted and legally recognized. 

In Surendranagar, a camera trap study was carried out to document wild mammals across pastoralist grazing lands - an area increasingly shaped by quarries, highways, cement plants, and solar fields.  

The study, supported by the Habitats Trust, focused on Chotila and Thangadh blocks and deployed traps across 13 villages.  

Two pastoralist youth—Baldev Sasla and Jaypal Tramta, were hired as field assistants. Their knowledge of movement routes, water points, and livestock–predator encounters directly shaped the placement and timing of traps. Over the months, their involvement grew—from deployment to species identification and data interpretation. 

Through participatory mapping and long-term ecological monitoring, communities in Kachchh have assisted with also mapping the presence of Chinkara, Spiny Tailed Lizard, White-naped Tit, and Houbara Bustard in its corresponding habitats. With Sahjeevan’s support, communities have also formed Community Forest Resource Management Committees (CFMRCs) under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and Biodiversity Management Committees (BMC) under the Biological Diversity Act, 2001 to gain custodianship over these biodiversity-rich lands. 

One such group in Abdasa documented the presence of Olax nana, a rare and culturally significant shrub, along with the Spiny Tailed Lizard, prompting the inclusion of shrinking species in village conservation planning. “We always knew this plant (Olax Nana) mattered to our grazing cycles and to our medicines. Now the government knows too,” said Jitubhai Jadeja, member of the Lathedi Village Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC).  

But species conservation here isn’t about documentation alone, but also about changing everyday practices. In some villages, awareness sessions have reduced encroachment on nesting grounds. In others, BMCs and CFMRCs have created voluntary no-grazing zones during the breeding season for threatened ground-nesting birds.  

Additionally, revival efforts are also actively carried out; the BMC in Meghpar Village in Lakhpat established a nursery that cradles a disappearing native plant species called Commiphora stocksiana, locally known as Mitho Guggal. 

Sahjeevan’s website calls this “restoration through recognition”, and the results speak for themselves. The organization has worked with the Kharadiya Village BMC to protect vultures by regulating carcass disposal sites. The same village has also joint efforts in the conservation of crocodiles. Parallelly, wolf habitats were revived in the Saurashtra scrublands and Kachchh.