This project addresses key questions on how India’s vision and ambition of protecting its wildlife has panned out since 1972, when India laid out its plans to protect endangered species and protect habitats. It asks how the shifts in these plans have changed from the developmental state to a neoliberal state across laws, policies and the management of the various communities that interfaced with these aspirations of protecting habitats and species. The proposal is to chronicle the intersection of India’s wildlife conservation efforts of the past five decades with a cross section of people from politicians, bureaucrats, foresters, scientists, activists, cultivators, adivasis and forest dependent people. The chronicling will take the form of well researched long form interviews with key personalities, and archival research to contextualize and validate narratives. The product of this research and work will be published along with public events to ensure there is dissemination of the narratives, to help historicise contemporary debates and ideological conflicts in conservation.