From Tigers to Vultures: How One Team in Wardha Has Rescued & Treated 40,000 Wild Animals

Ashish Goswami (45) vividly recalls the day he met the person with whom he would build the People For Animals (PFA) Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, one of India’s largest NGOs for animal rescue. 

“There he was, a boy of around 15 years, cycling in my direction, shirtless. His shirt, bundled under his arm, held injured parrots,” Ashish recalls. The cyclist was Kaustubh Gawande. His bravado fascinated Ashish, who thought to himself, “I want to build People For Animals with someone this quirky, someone with so much passion.”

Since 1999, under the guidance of animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi, the centre, headquartered in Wardha, Maharashtra, has treated and rehabilitated over 40,000 animals — last year alone, they provided vital care to 5,600 animals, including tigers, leopards, sloth bears, ungulates, and endangered birds — while working in close partnership with the Maharashtra Forest Department. Their work has resonated across western and central India. 

Ashish traces his love for the wild to a nature camp in school, where he was introduced to social worker and Magsaysay awardee Dr Prakash Amte. The latter’s work with wildlife stirred a passion in Ashish, who decided to follow suit. 

He started as a snake rescuer — “After my father’s aunt died of a snake bite because she couldn’t get timely help, I realised the kind of superstition that prevailed around snakes. So, I started rescuing them,” — but soon, was urged by Maneka Gandhi to broaden his horizons and extend his help and services to other wild creatures. 

Set on a 25-acre piece of land in Wardha, the centre is now a bed of hope for the wild. 

When compassion meets conservation 

September 2022. 

News of a man-eating tigress on the prowl in the Karanja range area of Wardha district was causing widespread panic among the locals. After seven people and several cattle lost their lives to her claws, the Maharashtra Forest Department issued a capture order. 

Kaustubh, who was part of the team tasked with performing the capture, shares, “We started employing modern techniques to trace the tigress’s location and movements. Nine teams, each comprising five forest officials and equipped with 40 trap cameras, were deployed strategically across the forest areas. As part of the PFA Wardha wildlife veterinary team, my responsibility was to ensure that all tranquilising equipment was in place, ready for action when the opportunity arose.” 

Months of waiting followed. Then the moment arrived. The tigress was spotted. “But just as we prepared to act, she gave birth to three adorable cubs right in front of our eyes. At that moment, our priorities shifted,” Kaustubh explains. “We decided to abort the capturing operation and instead focus on ensuring the safety of the tigress and her newborn cubs.” In that moment, the animal welfare activist understood how wildlife rescue stands at an intersection of empathy and compassion. 

Having dedicated decades to the cause, he and his mentor Ashish bring a well-groomed gaze to the conversation. But they maintain that every rescue is unique. While one can serve as a template for the other, there’s often a lot of impromptu decision-making that distinguishes each case. 

Take, for instance, the one above. Range Forest Officer Abhay Talhan, who was also part of the rescue team, shares how they were taken aback by the tigress giving birth. He reasons, “It had taken us three months to get to a place where we could tranquilise her, but in that moment, we had to shift our trend of thought. Instead, we used the Boma technique, which helped the mother and cubs be safely moved to the rescue centre.” 

Talhan is referencing the popular African wildlife capture method that involves the creation of a funnel-shaped enclosure to gently guide and contain the animal without the use of tranquillisers. This case set a precedent for its kind in Wardha. 

Care, cure and comeback

Government data (2024) suggests that a total of 628 tigers died in India during the past five years. The causes of death were natural and manmade, with poaching being a major culprit. In light of this, the PFA Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center underlines its commitment to rescuing, treating, and rehabilitating injured, displaced, or distressed wildlife through its specialised facilities which include a digital X-ray machine, haematology analyser, and biochemistry analyser, fully functional operation theatre with advanced equipment such as an electro-cautery unit, anaesthesia machine, ventilator, multiparameter monitor, and autoclave. 

They also boast two dedicated wildlife ambulances, tranquilising equipment, specially designed treatment cages for large carnivores such as tigers and leopards, and well-structured large and small enclosures to support rehabilitation and recovery in a safe environment.

Following rescue, they ensure the animals are released back into the wild in optimal health. 

The work doesn’t stop there. 

Ashish elaborates, “We also work closely with local communities and forest departments to reduce human-wildlife conflict through awareness programmes, rescue interventions, and sustainable conservation practices. This includes deploying a mobile veterinary unit for quick response.” 

Add to this the structured rewilding projects for rescued animals, GPS collaring and behavioural assessments, vulture reintroduction and awareness campaigns across local communities, schools, and institutions. Their strategic position in Wardha — from where they are the first to be dialled in cases of animal crisis — gives them a bird’s eye view of the challenges the wild battles in the present day. 

Inside the daring rescues of pangolins and sloth bears

One of the most crucial cases that Ashish recalls is that of an injured pangolin. “Some wildlife traffickers had bound the animal with wire, causing multiple injuries.” The pangolin was brought to the Wardha centre, a shadow of its former self, needing urgent wound debridement. But this was easier said than done. “As we learnt, pangolins cannot be administered general anaesthesia; they need to be given gaseous anaesthesia. But their tendency to curl up to protect themselves makes it tough to administer the anaesthetic using the machine. So we approached vets at the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Sawangi, Wardha; they demonstrated the use of the machine to us, and our vets replicated the instructions.” 

But the challenge was far from over. “Pangolins only eat termites and ants, and so, every lot of mud had to be sieved and screened to separate the ants and the termites, before these could be fed to the pangolin.” This was one of the nine pangolins that have been saved, treated, and released by the centre. 

These rescues fall against the backdrop of reports that underscore pangolins as one of the most trafficked animals, with 1,203 pangolins being found in illegal wildlife trade in India from 2018 to 2022; the animal’s scales and body parts are considered prized in traditional medicine.

Recalling another intrepid case, Kaustubh remembers Munna, the injured sloth bear that they rescued from Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary, Pandharkawada, Yavatmal, Maharashtra. “In August 2022, we got a call from the Pandharkawda Forest Department, informing us about a sloth bear that was found wounded and highly aggressive. The PFA team left Wardha with the equipment and reached Pandharkawada. The operation that started at 3:30 am ended at 7 am with the animal being successfully tranquilised and captured.”

According to the results of a questionnaire-based survey by a team including scientist K Yoganand in 2006, there are around 6,000 to 11,000 sloth bears in India. The study underlined that their declining populations are threatened by habitat fragmentation, forest degradation and poaching. 

The animal is designated as ‘vulnerable’ by the IUCN, with India housing 90 percent of the extant population. This is what makes these rescues crucial, Kaustubh reasons. Sharing more about that particular case, he says, “Munna was infected with maggot wounds on his head. If not treated, these wounds could damage the brain. He had a high fever and severe pain during the rescue and was given first aid on the spot.” 

Currently, the animal is under observation at the Wardha centre. 

Navigating the ethical labyrinths of animal rescue 

Emphasising that the goal is to ensure the animal receives the best course of treatment, Ashish adds that if it’s an endangered species or one close to extinction, a committee is formed to decide about its release. The decision on the location of release rests with the forest department. 

“If the animal in question is a tiger or leopard, then the procedures followed are according to the National Tiger Conservation Authority. If it’s a snake, we can’t keep it for too long; we need to release it within two to three days,” Ashish adds. 

Even beyond the ambit of animal rescues, the team at People For Animals Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center has been engaged in animal reintroduction programmes. This includes one centred around the blackbuck. “In collaboration with the Bor Tiger Reserve management, we developed a systematic plan for the reintroduction of blackbucks into the grassland ecosystems of the reserve. This initiative wasn’t just about release; it was a scientifically informed rewilding process designed to ensure the survival and integration of blackbucks in a protected, suitable habitat,” Kaustubh shares. 

Sharing that the grasslands of the Bor Tiger Reserve, with their open plains and secure environment, provided an ideal location for this reintroduction, he adds, “I supervised habitat assessments, selected appropriate release zones, and coordinated health check-ups, quarantine procedures, and soft release protocols for the animals.” 

Tracking hope on wings

The focus group isn’t just animals but also endangered birds. 

Take, for instance, the vulture, which, from a 50-million-strong population, in the mid-1990s plummeted to near zero. The drug diclofenac was to blame. While the population of the bird has seen a resurgence in recent years, Kaustubh shares, radio collaring is helping conservationists track and assess the patterns of flight and jump to the rescue in cases of bird injury. 

“Recently, an injured vulture was found in Yavatmal. When we reached the site and examined it, we found that it was suffering from organophosphate poisoning. This vulture was suffering from digestive distress and weakness. Further examination revealed that the vulture had been radio collared — this was part of the Bombay Natural History Society’s initiative that was attaching GPS tracking on long-billed vultures,” he explains. 

After rescue and treatment, through radio collaring, the team at Wardha got to know that the vulture had made its way to the Kawal Tiger Reserve in Telangana.

These cases rest on the bedrock of the rescue centre — to ensure that, no matter what condition the animal was brought to the centre in, when it is released into the jungle, it is in better health. 

All pictures courtesy PFA Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center

Sources 

‘Over 1,000 pangolins poached and trafficked in India between 2018 and 2022’: by Shiv Sahay Singh, Published on 18 February 2023.

‘Government data says 628 tigers die in India during the past five years’: by The Hindu, Published on 26 July 2024.

‘Is the sloth bear in India secure? A preliminary report on distribution, threats and conservation requirements’, Published in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society in January 2006.

‘Life and struggles of the sloth bear in human-dominated areas’: by Aathira Perinchery, Published on 27 November 2020.

‘How decline of Indian vultures led to 500,000 human deaths’: by Soutik Biswas, Published on 26 July 2024.

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