Who is Khirabdhi Seth, the fearless forest guard protecting Odisha’s wild heart?

She knows these paths by torchlight,
By the glint of metal in the green.

Thirteen years she has tread the forest,
Read the forest like a scripture of signs:

A print in the mud, a lull in birdsong.

EdexLive honours Khirabdhi Seth, Devi of the Vigil.

Roots in Odisha, branches in Chhattisgarh.

A border marked through sal and teak,
The sound of boots crushing wet leaves.

—

In the forests of Debrigarh, Odisha, duty begins before sunrise. For thirteen years, Forest Guard Khirabdhi Seth has walked those hours, reading the hush between birdcalls, learning what danger sounds like before it arrives. Stationed at Lakhanpur Beat under the Hirakud Wildlife Division, her work reaches the border where Odisha touches Chhattisgarh — a landscape as unpredictable as the people who slip through it.

She began her service in 2012, posted first in the remote ranges of Rengali and Dhudorokusum. She has led operations that apprehended 17 poachers and seized country-made weapons. Her approach is simple: patience, presence, and the ability to see what others overlook. Most of her arrests were preventive, made before the trigger was pulled.

One night on the western edge of the sanctuary, three poachers fired upon her patrol. She escaped unhurt, then moved forward, making the arrests herself. On another patrol she faced timber smugglers; though outnumbered, she subdued and produced them in court. Each incident entered the records quietly, as the forest kept its own counsel.

Recognition, however, travels far. At the Devi Awards 2025, she was honoured for her courage and consistency, traits rare even among those trained for this terrain. Over the past year, she has foot-patrolled more than 4,000 kilometres within the sanctuary. She has also represented Odisha at national-level forest sports meets, winning medals in swimming for nearly a decade.

Khirabdhi’s is a story of endurance measured in footsteps, vigilance traced through wet leaves, and faith that a single guard can hold a boundary together. Each dawn she ties her boots, lifts her torch, and steps once more into a forest that knows her by name.