Mitrajit Deb

Many conservation stories begin deep inside forests. Mitrajit's unfolds beyond the forest boundary, where people, farms, schools and langurs share the same landscape. He works in and around Rowa Wildlife Sanctuary, one of India's lesser-known protected areas, in the northeastern state of Tripura. Here, communities live alongside the endangered Phayre's langur, known locally as Chosma Banor and Tripura's state animal. Conservation conversations often centre on species, populations and threats, but Mitrajit is asking a different question: how do communities manage to live alongside wildlife every single day?

Through his Champions project, Mitrajit will systematically record encounters between people and langurs, along with people's own accounts, to understand where conflict, negotiation and coexistence arise. Working with communities, they will develop practical ways of living alongside the langurs, and a school and storytelling programme will build children's curiosity about and connection with the forest around them. Over two years, he hopes people will talk more openly about conservation and reflect on their experiences rather than react in the moment. He also hopes they will feel their voices matter, and slowly come to see the langur less as a problem and more as a neighbour. In his view, the future of an endangered primate in Northeast India may depend as much on people as it does on forests.