The slanting evening sun brought into sharp contrast a striped hyena’s fresh pugmark in the newly turned earth of Rajasthan’s desert edge. The saying “build it, and they will come” seemed apposite, for the water in the newly built johad, completed just a month before in anticipation of the forthcoming monsoon, had already attracted interest from wildlife in the adjacent Sariska National Park. Nearby, longer-established johads and open wells were regularly visited by leopards and other animals, and even the occasional tiger, in search of a drink in the desert fringe.
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