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The record

What the work has produced

Six landscape projects, a Sarus census running unbroken since 2004-05, four tigers identified by their stripes, and a monitoring system that reports whether any of it is working.

32

Sarus Cranes, 2026 census

In Gondia, down from 45 in 2020 — the reason the work continues

2004

Sarus monitoring since

An unbroken annual census, 2004-05 to today

2011

Dispersal research since

Wildlife movement across NNTR, Kanha, Pench and Umred-Karhandla

6

Landscape projects delivered

With IUCN, KfW, WWF-India and the Maharashtra Forest Department

Major projects

The first two were funded by institutions that required reporting against them; the rest are SEWA's own long-running programmes.

IUCN / KfW Development Bank

Integrated habitat conservation & eco-development in the Vidarbha tiger landscape

An integrated conservation and eco-development approach across forest-fringe and wildlife-sensitive villages, addressing habitat degradation, human-wildlife conflict, livelihood dependency and limited community access to government programmes together rather than separately.

What it delivered

  • Baseline socio-economic and human-wildlife conflict mapping across sensitive buffer villages, identifying conflict hotspots and resource dependencies
  • Village awareness programmes, workshops, youth activities and street plays on wildlife and coexistence
  • Women-led Self-Help Groups formed and strengthened, with vocational skills and alternative livelihoods
  • Local youth trained and mobilised as community Primary Response Teams for wildlife emergencies
  • Waterhole desilting, earthen bunds, nala water retention and groundwater recharge
  • Forest-edge households linked to existing government welfare, livelihood and agriculture schemes
  • Community participation embedded in wildlife monitoring, habitat protection and conflict mitigation

Maharashtra Forest Department, WWF-India and conservation partners

Sarus Crane monitoring, wetland protection & community conservation

SEWA has worked on Sarus Crane conservation in the Gondia landscape since 2004-05. Gondia supports the southernmost breeding population of the species in India, which makes this landscape disproportionately important to its survival.

What it delivered

  • Systematic annual population surveys across Gondia and adjoining landscapes with trained teams and community volunteers
  • Active nesting sites, breeding pairs, chicks and nesting outcomes identified and monitored
  • The Sarus Mitra network developed, enabling farmers and youth to protect nests directly
  • Sarus Friendly Rice promoted, reducing harmful chemical inputs in breeding landscapes
  • Village wetlands documented, with advocacy for their protection and restoration
  • Nature education, village meetings and awareness campaigns building local stewardship
  • Coordination with the Forest Department, Agriculture Department, ATMA and local institutions

Murdoli-Jambdhi landscape, Navegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve

Habitat restoration & water security in the NNTR landscape

Habitat and water conservation in critical wildlife habitats and corridors, improving water availability, restoring degraded micro-habitats and strengthening ecological connectivity. Water now holds later into the summer months, supporting wildlife movement across the landscape.

What it delivered

  • Nala desilting and water flow improvement
  • Small water-retention structures constructed and strengthened
  • Check dams and earthen bunds
  • Seasonal water bodies restored
  • Seasonal water availability monitoring
  • Community participation in habitat restoration
  • Monitoring of wildlife use of restored habitats

Navegaon-Nagzira and adjoining Central Indian landscapes

Wildlife corridor monitoring & dispersal research

Long-term field research into wildlife movement, tiger dispersal, habitat connectivity and corridor functionality — combining scientific field data with local ecological knowledge to support landscape-level planning.

What it delivered

  • Camera trapping and wildlife monitoring
  • Tiger and large carnivore documentation
  • Dispersal and movement studies
  • Important wildlife corridors identified
  • Connectivity documented between Navegaon-Nagzira, Kanha, Pench and Umred-Karhandla
  • Community-based wildlife reporting
  • Evidence generated for corridor conservation and management

WWF-India

Landscape Partnership Initiative: breeding populations of the Sarus Crane

The current programme, reported on in March 2026. It works the agricultural side of Sarus conservation — the farmers whose fields hold the nests — and pushes toward a certified Sarus Friendly Rice that pays them for it.

What it delivered

  • Post-nesting monitoring completed across the breeding sites, tracking chick survival and breeding success
  • Farmer meetings run across all four project clusters, with nests now reported by farmers themselves
  • Hazardous pesticides in use across the landscape identified and documented, with safer alternatives and IPM promoted
  • Block-wise meetings with the Agriculture Department; coordination with ATMA begun to form Farmer Producer Groups
  • Feasibility and stakeholder groundwork laid for certifying and branding Sarus Friendly Rice
  • Annual census completed across the Gondia-Balaghat landscape: 32 birds in Gondia, 50 in Balaghat

Schools, youth, farmers and frontline stakeholders

Conservation education & capacity building

Education treated as a long-term conservation investment: building awareness and practical capacity among the people who live alongside wildlife, so conservation action continues beyond any individual project.

What it delivered

  • School-based nature education
  • Village conservation awareness programmes
  • Youth engagement and leadership
  • Farmer awareness programmes
  • Nature guide and interpretation training
  • Wildlife and biodiversity identification
  • Conservation workshops and field-based learning
  • Campaigns around tiger, Sarus Crane and wetland conservation

The field study behind it

A team of eight monitors the corridors and the periphery of adjoining villages continuously — early morning through midnight — with threats and observations reported, collated and forwarded daily. Water bodies, villages and dense forest patches are covered on a fixed schedule, and the area around Nagzira Wildlife Sanctuary is walked daily for carnivore movement, other wildlife crossings and human presence.

An informer network spread across the landscape keeps the team ahead of wildlife movement and emerging threats, working alongside the Forest Department, village communities and other organisations.

Nagzira is distinguished from other sanctuaries by the migratory birds that arrive through the year, and poaching activity follows that seasonal cycle. Sustained watchfulness is what keeps poachers at a distance.

What the team is up against

  • Overgrazing
  • Poaching
  • Timber and bamboo collection
  • Forest fires, both manmade and natural
A leopard photographed at night by a camera trap on a stony forest floor

How we know it works

Monitoring & evaluation

SEWA runs a dedicated Monitoring and Evaluation function. Against each goal, objective and indicator, these are the methods actually used.

  • Baseline, quarterly, midterm and end-line surveys
  • Focus Group Discussions (FGD), PRA and RRA
  • Meetings with different stakeholders
  • Progress and performance check-ups
  • Monthly and quarterly staff meetings
  • Interviews with direct and indirect beneficiaries
  • Report preparation, shared with donors and stakeholders

Reporting to funding partners

Provided as each contract requires:

Progress / Activities Report Financial Report Monthly Report Quarterly Report Annual Audit Report Annual Activity Report Monitoring Report Evaluation Report Survey Report

Financial management principles

  • Transparency
  • Accountability
  • Access to information by all stakeholders
  • Conformity with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
  • Close and regular monitoring
  • Internal and external audits
  • Compliance with the law of financial management

Chartered accountants: Rajesh J. Vyas & Co., Gondia

Four tigers, named by their stripes

Tumsar sub-division, Bhandara Forest Division, monitored jointly by SEWA and Save Ecosystem and Tiger with the Forest Department. Tigers had long been reported here as transient or resident, but without the data to say which. Four tigers identified individually by stripe pattern across two ranges, with an estimate of six or more in the two ranges not yet surveyed. Taken together, the four ranges carry the prey base, connectivity to Pench and the forest area to justify sanctuary status — which is what SEWA and SEAT have put to the department.

Tigers individually identified in the Tumsar sub-division
ID Sex First recorded
B2 Male 14 November 2014 Pangdi forest, Bagheda round, Nakadongri range
B3 Female 1 December 2014 Hardoli round, Tumsar range
B4 Male 15 December 2014 Chicholi round, Tumsar range
B5 Female 5 January 2015 Pangdi, between Bagheda and Lohara rounds

Pugmarks of a female carrying cubs near Gobarwahi on 4 February 2015, never photographed.

Also camera-trapped

Leopard Indian wolf Dhole Sloth bear Indian gaur Four-horned antelope Nilgai Sambar Spotted deer Honey badger Jungle cat Small Indian civet Porcupine

Method

Camera traps Transect lines Pugmark analysis Scat analysis Regular patrolling

299.79 sq km reserve forest, with a further 53.8 sq km of protected forest, across the Nakadongri, Tumsar, Lendezari, Jamb-Kandri ranges.

How the organisation is run

Responsibility for achieving SEWA's vision rests with the Governing Body, as set out in the association's bye-laws. It engages and evaluates the chief executive, prepares and approves the strategic plan, reviews annual activity and financial plans, and approves the annual budget and financial audits. The board meets four times a year.

President

Management committee head

Project Manager

Programme delivery across the landscape

Coordinator — Tiger, leopard & sloth bear

Conservation programme

Coordinator — Sarus Crane

Conservation and awareness programme

Coordinator — Blackbuck & other wildlife

Conservation programme

Human Resource Department Internal Audit Department Accounts and Finance Department Monitoring and Evaluation Team

Supported & recognised by

  • IUCN
  • WWF-India
  • KfW Development Bank
  • German Cooperation (GIZ)
  • Maharashtra Forest Dept
  • Satpuda Foundation
  • VNCS