FILE PHOTO: A view of a deforested area in the middle of the Yari plains, in Caqueta, Colombia March 2, 2021. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez/File Photo
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Ranger Atul Deokar's walkie-talkie crackled one October night. He heard his colleagues' panicked voices shouting for back-up: They had been surrounded by 70 villagers armed with axes and sharpened sticks and demanding to hunt in India's protected Pench Tiger Reserve.
The rangers fired into the air after the villagers attempted to set fire to the hut in which the patrol were holed up -- ending a 30-minute standoff that reflects the pressure that forests and wildlife have come under in Asia, Africa, and Latin America as a result of the pandemic.
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