The riddle of the crane: Multispecies coexistence and the case of Dhanauri (Uttar Pradesh, India)

Metaphor of unconditional love, devotion, empathy and compassion, the giant Indian crane, or Sarus Crane, is a topos of Indian literature: its song is capable of evoking the plots of an aesthetic, lyrical and spiritual search. Sung in epic and myth, this animal today stands as a symbol of Environmental Humanities in India, despite its increasingly threatened conservation status. This article focuses on the case of Dhanauri Wetlands, illustrating the complexity of multispecies coexistence between endangered animals and a human society in full transformation. The Dhanauri oasis, not yet officially recognized as a protected ‘Ramsar’ site, stands as a bastion of environmentalism in a paradigmatic struggle for resilience against the rampant urbanization and industrialization of the Indian doab.