Hello, it's Manvine bringing you an episode from a new podcast series from The Times in partnership with Rolex and its perpetual planet initiative, Planet Hope.

In this series, Adam Vaughn, the environment editor for The Times, asks why our planet is changing so rapidly and meets leading experts from around the world who are trying to turn the tide.

Through its perpetual planet initiative, Rolex supports individuals and organisations who go above and beyond to safeguard and preserve our planet for the next generation.

As the world's population continues to grow, conflicts between people and wildlife over food, resources and space for living are heightening.

Take India, for example, the country home to more than an eighth of the world population. Only 5% of its terrain is reserved for nature, but the country is 70% of the world's tigers and half of its Asian elephant population.

So if both man and beast, depending on the natural resources that can be found in the country's forests, they often collide.

In this village in central India, the threat of attack lurks around every corner, the townspeople live and breathe it.

We can't walk the streets after dark, that's when the tigers and bears roam. Maya Caretkar has seen tigers up close and still shutters at the thought. She knows many others have died.

India's last official count of the tiger population in 2018 found that it had doubled in a little over 10 years when the government began its conservation efforts.

But with the big cats still considered an endangered species and with their natural habitat shrinking, will the number of human animal conflicts continue to increase?

I was walking with four people for my team and we happened to be walking up a hill and at one point one of us spotted some scrap marks that looked very fresh and we said, okay, there is some carnivore around here, you know, 100 meters up the road.

We saw this giant tiger and he happened to be facing the other way, densias for about a minute, turned around and just crouched down.

And for a second there, everybody's mind is easy going to charge and then one of us coughed.

I'm Adam Vaughn, the Environment Editor for the Times and this is Planet Hope in partnership with Rolex and its perpetual Planet Initiative.

Today, we hear from the woman who's using technology to forge a piece between humans and wildlife.

In this episode, we're connecting to Bangalore in India.

With a population of 11 million, Bangalore is the capital of India's southern Connecticut state.

Known for being the centre of India's high-tech industry, the city is often referred to as the Silicon Valley of India.

But despite its sprawling urban landscape and advances in tech, the city sits on the very edge of some pretty impressive parks.

Just 22 kilometers to the south of Bangalore city centre, we'll find a 25,000 acre national park called Banagata.

Home to mammals such as the Indian leopard, sloth bear, golden jackal, wild boar, tigers and more.

And that's just one of eight national parks that sits just outside the bustling city, allowing for an increasing amount of human wildlife interaction.

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