India, July 30 -- The lockdown has meant that "sighting tourism" at our tiger reserves is non-existent. But with the wildlife economy shut and the concurrent reduced vigilance at parks, poachers have become very active again. According to the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network, TRAFFIC, which recently released a report, Indian wildlife amidst the COVID-19 crisis : An analysis of poaching and illegal wildlife trade, more than 88 poaching incidents were reported from March 23 till May 3, almost double the number during the six weeks before the lockdown. Nat Geo explorers Krithi Karanth and Malaika Vaz are currently assessing conservation challenges in the post-pandemic era.

Recalling the good old days of filmmaking in various national parks...