Bhaskar Vira

In Kaziranga, a national park in north-eastern India, rangers shoot people to protect rhinos. The park’s aggressive policing is, of course, controversial, but the results are clear: despite rising demand for illegal rhino horn, and plummeting numbers throughout Africa and southeast Asia, rhinos in Kaziranga are flourishing.

India is facing one of its worst droughts in recent memory—official estimates suggest that at least 330 million people are likely to be affected by acute shortages of water. As the subcontinent awaits the imminent arrival of the monsoon rains, bringing relief to those who have suffered a long, dry, and exceptionally warm summer, the crisis affecting India’s water resources is high on public agenda.