Kaziranga National Park in Assam holds the largest population of one horned rhinos on Earth, and since August 2023 a remarkable cohort has walked its trails: one hundred and eight women forest guards known as the Van Durgas, the Goddesses of the Forest. Most joined from farming families nearby. They patrol among rhinos, elephants and sleeping tigers, check camera traps, and talk with the villages along the boundary, because guarding a forest is as much about neighbours as it is about fences. Suniya Pegu, who leads the team in the park's Eastern Agoratoli range, is one of the names their story travels under, alongside guards like Priyanka Bharali, Rashmi Borah, Dipanjali Boraik and Mitali Boruah.
The quiet result is the loudest part: rhino poaching in Kaziranga has fallen to almost nothing in recent years, and the park now goes whole years without losing a single animal. When the great floods moved through, the guards walked the highlands and corridors, steering animals to safety and keeping people out of harm's way at the same time. India named its first women forest guards barely a generation ago. Now the Van Durgas are the face of one of conservation's steadiest wins, and the daughters watching them patrol are already asking about the uniform.
Our short take: the Van Durgas are reported by Mongabay India in the piece When women stand guard for the forest, with further reporting by Global Voices. Photograph: Unsplash.