For years, the forest had been a source of survival for Anil Mistry. He had grown up in West Bengal’s Sundarbans, where poaching was woven into the lives of many families struggling with poverty, floods and a lack of opportunities. He hunted deer and, if a tiger appeared, that too could become a target. Then, during one hunt, Mistry watched a wounded doe die while her fawn remained beside her. That sight changed the direction of his life forever, according to a detailed 2019 report by Mongabay-India, which spoke to Mistry about his transformation from poacher to conservationist. Scroll down to read more…
What changed that day?
Mistry was on a hunting trip with a friend when they encountered a doe. His friend shot the animal, leaving it badly wounded.The doe did not die immediately. She lay injured and in pain, while her fawn stayed close to her. For Mistry, who had grown up seeing hunting as part of life, something about that moment was different. He was devastated by what he was witnessing.
“I was distraught with grief,” he recalled in his conversation with Mongabay-India.The experience forced him to look at hunting differently. The animals he had once regarded as part of a livelihood were also mothers, offspring and living creatures capable of suffering. And instead of simply walking away from the incident, Mistry went to the authorities and admitted what he had done.
He grew up where hunting was a way of life
Mistry’s transformation makes more sense when seen against the difficult circumstances in which he grew up. He was raised on Bali Island in the Sundarbans, an area where communities have historically depended heavily on the surrounding forests and waterways. Mistry told Mongabay-India that there was little development in his village and that repeated floods made life difficult.Poaching and illegal cutting of trees had become common. For Mistry and others around him, hunting was not initially viewed through the lens of conservation. It was a way to survive. He said that people would usually hunt deer and, if they encountered a tiger, they might kill that animal as well. The dying doe made him question that entire way of life.
From admitting his crime to protecting the forest
After the incident, Mistry approached the then field director of the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve and confessed. But the conversation did more than force him to confront his own actions. It also made him think about the wider relationship between people and the forest.If people were dependent on wildlife and forest resources because they had no alternatives, simply telling them to stop hunting would not solve the problem. Mistry eventually established the Bali Nature and Wildlife Conservation Society, working towards mangrove and wildlife protection while helping local communities find alternative livelihoods.His village, once associated with poaching, began moving in another direction. Mistry later said that no poaching incidents had been recorded there for 15 to 20 years at the time of Mongabay-India’s 2019 report.
The former poacher began saving tigers
Mistry’s transformation eventually led him to the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), where he became its principal field officer in the Sundarbans. His intimate knowledge of the region, including its people, forests and wildlife, became an asset in conservation work. One of his key responsibilities was handling tigers that wandered into human settlements. Over the course of nearly two decades, Mistry was involved in the capture and safe release of around 70 tigers.The work was dangerous.During one rescue operation, Mistry fell and broke his leg. The tiger involved ultimately had to be shot to save his life. Yet even after years spent protecting communities from dangerous encounters with tigers, Mistry refused to reduce the animals to villains.Mistry’s view of human-tiger conflict is shaped partly by his own family’s history. He has argued that humans cannot simply blame tigers for entering areas that people have gradually occupied.
His forefathers, he pointed out, had helped clear forests to establish settlements. “We have occupied their space,” he told Mongabay-India, arguing that tigers moving between islands in search of food were not necessarily the ones responsible for the conflict. For him, conservation therefore could not mean protecting animals while ignoring the people living beside them.
Saving wildlife also meant helping people
Mistry’s work increasingly focused on reducing local dependence on the forest. Through alternative livelihoods, community initiatives and ecotourism, conservation groups worked to give residents economic reasons to protect the wildlife around them.WPSI’s community programme in the Sundarbans has included livelihood support, women’s self-help groups, health initiatives and conservation awareness. The organisation has also described Mistry as a key figure in its community work on Bali Island. The idea was simple: if protecting the forest could also improve people’s lives, conservation would have a better chance of lasting.
One dying doe changed the man he became
Mistry’s story is remarkable not because a hunter eventually became a conservationist, but because the change began with a single moment of empathy. He had spent years seeing animals as part of a difficult livelihood. Then he saw a mother dying and her fawn refusing to leave her.That was enough to make him stop. The man who once entered the Sundarbans to hunt wildlife eventually became someone who entered the same forests to protect it, and helped capture and release dozens of tigers along the way. Sometimes, a person’s life changes not because the world around them changes, but because they finally see that world differently.