To save nature, you have to work in harmony with humans

About the organisation

In and around Maharashtra's Gondia district, SEWA is helping regenerate tiger habitats and protect Sarus Cranes, blackbuck and wolves. Because wild animals do not adhere to human boundaries, SEWA works with communities and forest officials to protect forests, organise anti-poaching drives, run mass-awareness campaigns, rescue and rehabilitate wild animals, reduce villagers' dependency on forest resources, and monitor the dispersal of tigers.

Reducing human-wildlife conflict in villages around the Navegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve is a key intervention — one SEWA began before it was formally registered.

“We began studying tiger dispersal in 2011 to help improve management practices and policies for the long-term survival of tigers in the landscape. We discovered that the predators move from Nagzira to Kanha-Pench towards the north and towards Umred-Karhandla in the south. Protecting these critical corridors therefore emerged as a vital priority. Political will and administrative resolve can turn this landscape into one of the finest tiger habitats in the country.”

Sawan Bahekar, President — Sanctuary Special Maharashtra Wildlife Award, 2016

The team works with the awareness that balancing natural and manmade habitat is the whole task. Awareness programmes run through the year across every peripheral village, marking the nature-related days in the calendar, so that residents know the wildlife is constantly present and are on guard in daily life. That awareness is built through surveys, workshops and group discussions with villagers and with the administration alongside them.

Our founder

Sawan Bahekar is a professional demographer in ecotourism and wildlife conservation and management. His observation and study of tiger dispersal and migration have contributed materially to tiger monitoring in Maharashtra. He is best known for his work on the Sarus Crane, whose Maharashtra population had fallen to a perilous four individuals in 2003-04. SEWA has monitored and protected the Gondia population since 2004-05; the 2026 census recorded 32 birds, against 45 in 2020.

He works with the Forest Department to control habitat encroachment, mitigate human-animal conflict and control forest fires — a de facto forest official without ever having been appointed one — across more than fifteen years in wildlife conservation and ecotourism.

How SEWA thinks about a problem

A problem is like a tree — what we see are its branches, but its true roots lie hidden beneath the surface. Environmental and wildlife challenges are rarely isolated ecological problems; they are bound up with livelihood insecurity, weak community institutions, resource dependency and gaps in local governance.

Shiksha → Jagaran → Sangathan → Shakti → Karya