GAUTALA
19°58′N · 75°30′E
Est.
1986
Community-led Conservation / Est. 1986

Roots in the forest, hands in the village.

A wildlife sanctuary on the eastern flank of the Western Ghats — sustained not by fences alone, but by the people who live alongside it.

Area
26,000 ha
Ranges
02
Go there: three stories from the field
WATER SHORTAGE / SINGLE-USE PLASTIC / HUMAN–WILDLIFE CONFLICT / LAND-USE CHANGE /
Go There

Three stories, one forest under pressure.

Field Guide

Who calls this forest home.

A living, growing record of Gautala's residents — dry-forest specialists that most visitors never see.
Least Concern → watch

Indian Leopard

Panthera pardus fusca

The valley's top predator, moving unseen through the dry deciduous cover — and increasingly, along the sanctuary's edge.

Vulnerable

Sloth Bear

Melursus ursinus

Termite-mound specialist, shaggy and near-sighted — often the animal at the centre of human-wildlife conflict reports.

Near Threatened

Four-Horned Antelope

Tetracerus quadricornis

The world's only four-horned ungulate, and one of India's shyest — the grassland plateau is one of its last strongholds.

Least Concern

Indian Paradise Flycatcher

Terpsiphone paradisi

A ribbon of white trailing through the canopy — the sanctuary's most photographed, least understood resident.

Rarely seen

Striped Hyena

Hyaena hyaena

A scavenger and quiet ecosystem cleaner, more heard at dusk than seen — and badly misunderstood by nearby villages.

This guide is growing.

Every survey adds a new resident to the record.

Even if there were a sword in the hands of everyone, it is willpower that establishes a government.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj — The Great Emperor
Recent Impact

Numbers from the ground.

Southern Tropical Dry Deciduous forest, valley pockets and plateau grassland, administered from Aurangabad with a range seat in Chalisgaon.
26,000
Hectares protected
1986
Declared a wildlife sanctuary
2
Administrative ranges — Aurangabad HQ, Chalisgaon block
2
Field offices — Chalisgaon & Pune
The Mission

What we do together, on the ground.

01
Reduce external pressure on the landscape by catalysing active local participation and sustainable development.
02
Build awareness around biodiversity protection and conservation.
03
Open alternative livelihood paths for people living at the sanctuary's edge.
04
Bring environmental education into local schools and colleges.
05
Support the forest department's line staff in day-to-day protection.
06
Address human–wildlife conflict directly, on the ground, with those affected.
07
Generate a genuine sense of ownership among local communities.
Stories

Voices from the people doing the work.

Bring a change
in the society.

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