In the tidal lands of the Sundarbans, where rivers breathe with the sea and mangroves hold back storms, one man has become the bridge between people and wildlife. At 59, Anil Mistry is known across these islands as the man who rescues tigers, calms frightened villagers, and shows that protecting the forest is protecting life itself.
He has pulled crocodiles from fishing nets, carried snakes out of homes, and helped return more than 80 tigers safely to the wild. But his greatest rescue has not been of animals alone — it has been of an entire community, once dependent on hunting, now committed to conservation.
Mistry grew up in Bajri, West Bengal, a small village on Bali Island in the Sundarbans Delta. His father and grandfather had migrated from Bangladesh and helped settle the land by building embankments. As a child, he saw foxes, fishing cats, wild boar, and even tigers wander near the village.
“Everywhere there were trees and birds,” he recalls. “The forest was all around us.”
But few schools even taught basic reading or writing in any language. Most people didn’t know education could even help them. There was so little awareness about conservation and hunting was simply part of life.
Like many young men in his village, Mistry followed his elders into the forest. But over time, he began to see the cost of taking too much. “I realized that if we continued, one day there would be nothing left,” he says.
That realization became his turning point. With guidance from the forest department, he decided to change direction from being a hunter to a conservationist— not just for himself, but for his entire community.
Founding Bali Conservation Society
In the late 1980s, Mistry began speaking to friends and villagers about conservation. Many laughed at him at first. “They said, you hunted with us and now you want to stop us?” he recalls.
But he persisted. By 1999, the Bali Nature and Wildlife Conservation Society was registered. Soon, Mistry and his team were patrolling alongside the forest department, stopping illegal logging and poaching. In just one year, they helped seize over 200 illegal boats.
“It was not easy,” he says. “But slowly, people started to believe.”
Mistry’s work is not only about prevention — it is about protection. When frightened animals enter villages, he and his team step in to save both human and animal lives. Over the years, he has been part of more than 80 tiger rescues, in addition to countless crocodile, snake, and turtle rescues.
These moments are often dangerous, but they have earned him deep respect. “When people call me and say, ‘A tiger has come, please help us,’ that is my real reward,” he says.
Perhaps the greatest impact of Mistry’s work is the change in local attitudes. Where poaching was once common, today villagers themselves alert authorities if they see threats to wildlife.
Alternative livelihoods have also flourished. Many now run homestays, guide eco-tourists, or earn through embroidery, tailoring, and poultry. “People realized they could live with the forest, not against it,” Mistry says proudly.
Recognition and Role Today
Today, Mistry serves as Founder-Secretary of BNWCS and as Principal Field Officer of the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), under eminent conservationist Belinda Wright. He has been honored nationally and internationally, with bravery awards at Aranya Bhavan, he has also received the title of “Bono Bondhu” that translates to “friend of the jungle” and acknowledged by the Sunderbans Affairs Minister and the Development Board, but insists that his true achievement lies in community trust.
“The people of Sundarbans are honest and simple,” he says. “Now they understand that without the forest, we cannot survive.”
As he looks ahead, Mistry is clear about his message for the next generation. “If all the brilliant students leave Sundarbans for better opportunities and exposure to the world, who will protect it?” he asks. “This is one of the wonders of the world. Protect the tiger. Plant mangroves. Save biodiversity.”
Anil Mistry’s life is a story of transformation — not from darkness to guilt of hunting, but from ordinary beginnings to extraordinary impact. He is proof that one person’s change can have a ripple effect onto other lives and can inspire an entire community.
“The forest gives us life,” he says. “If we protect it, it will protect us.”
And in the Sundarbans, where land and water together form a marsh, Anil Mistry stands as proof that a single decision — to save instead of to take — can change the fate of a forest.
