The green litigator | Shibani Ghosh, 42, Environmental lawyer

When Shibani Ghosh learnt in 2024 that an elephant was to be relocated from Jorhat in Assam to Delhi’s Greater Kailash, one question struck her immediately: where would the animal be housed? The answer was Sainik Farms, a densely built-up, water-stressed neighbourhood hardly suited to an elephant. Already pursuing a case in the Delhi High Court against the transfer of elephants for religious purposes, she and her colleagues sought an urgent intervention on behalf of an animal welfare organisation. The court ordered an inspection and halted the relocation for then. “One elephant at a time,” she says of that outcome—something that still defines her approach to environmental law.