Iron Woman
Sudeshna Sengupta, 35
Officer in the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence

Sudeshna Sengupta's radiant smile hides the persona of a hard-as-nails revenue intelligence official. For five years now, she has chased down and nabbed those unsavoury characters who usually make it to the daily crime pages of newspapers-drug traffickers, gold smugglers and fake currency kingpins. Sengupta is in the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), the apex agency meant to nab violators of the Customs Act. She has so far arrested more than 80 criminals. Felons on bail have whispered the name of her son's school and her home address, but the DRI officer is unmoved by such threats. She willingly accepts these threats as occupational hazards and hasn't even once questioned her decision to skip a cushy desk job in the Central Excise and Customs Preventive department for the fieldwork she does now. Her most exciting assignments include nabbing a consignment of 15 kg of contraband gold being smuggled in from Myanmar and nabbing a smuggler, who, the department had estimated, had caused a Rs 100 crore revenue loss to the exchequer. Her stellar work has earned her plaudits, bagged her a DRI award for good work in 2018, and reinforced her belief in karma. "What I am doing today will heal the past and build a future," she says.

Mine Raider
Renu Raj, 30
Former Sub-Collector, Thrissur

In December 2017, as the sub-collector of Thrissur in Kerala, Renu Raj raided an illegal quarry run by a local CPI(M) leader and seized vehicles, explosives, excavators and mining machineries. The quarry was shut down. Soon, she initiated similar operations against other illegal quarries operating in her district. Around that time, she also started receiving information pertaining to illegal mining in the area. The information she got mostly came from women and youth, motivating her to conduct regular raids, says Dr Renu. She then set up taluk-level teams to conduct regular raids in quarry mining areas. Her surveillance and raids have almost put an end to illegal mining in the district. In November last year, she was transferred to Devikulam in Munnar district, which is considered a prestigious posting.

Conflict Manager
P.K. Dileep, 37
Indian Forest Service Officer, Deputy Director, Annamalai Tiger Reserve

PK. Dileep has had a childhood connect with elephants, having first seen them as a child at temple festivals in his native place, Kollam in Kerala. Today, the District Forest Officer and Deputy Director, Annamalai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu and veterinarian works towards reducing deaths caused by elephants straying out of the Gudalar forest. Every day, 100 people, including forest department staff, are mobilised to ensure elephant herds and lone tuskers living in the high-conflict zone do not stray close to human habitations. He has created a centralised tracking system relying on WhatsApp groups to track elephant movements. In 2017, Dileep's team reduced the number of human losses to three from 17 deaths in 2016.