Satpura's reintroduced barasingha herd just crossed 300 — a decade after the rescue began

The hard-ground barasingha — a swamp deer found almost nowhere else on Earth — was fading from Madhya Pradesh's Satpura Tiger Reserve. So in 2015, forest officials began moving deer from Kanha, about 135 in all over the years, and then did the hardest thing in conservation: waited. A decade later, the herd has grown to roughly 303 through natural breeding. Managers are now planning grassland corridors linking six meadows, with villages voluntarily relocating to let the grasslands breathe. Patience, compounded.