Priyanka Bhadani

Sasbani, a small Kumaoni village tucked into Uttarakhand’s Dhari tehsil, is no stranger to encounters with the wild. Monkeys raid farms in broad daylight; wild boars dig up fields overnight. In 2023, the forest department even proposed increasing the fox population to keep their numbers in check. “They ruin so much,” says Mamta Nayal, 52, who moved back to Sasbani, her native village, in 2017 after nearly two decades in Delhi. “It wasn’t like this before.”

It would be the first-ever stage performance of Amiruddin Shah later that evening, at the St Andrew’s Auditorium in Bandra, Mumbai. It is the annual performance of The Danceworx Performing Arts Academy, and Amir has a two-minute solo slot. We catch the 15-year-old ballerino just before his final rehearsal—he is a little anxious, but confident that his ballet performance would be top-notch.

Right across the stage sits an aged man, in the front row, closely watching him rehearse. He looks annoyed...