New naturalists at Forsyth Lodge, Satpura

Red Coral
Red Coral
Aug 27, 2017 · 2 min read

Venkatesh Kolappa — With over 9 years’ experience of being a naturalist

A childhood yearning and a compassion for conserving the wildlife and jungles made Venkatesh give up an established career in sales and marketing to pursue the life of a naturalist.

Growing up in the forested hills of Southern India and witnessing the degradation in his areas and loss of habitat for the flora around left a deep impact on Venkatesh’s life — and even though he pursued a career for 14 years in sales & marketing he could not stay away from the jungles and
doing his part in conservation.

Venkatesh started travelling across different parts of India and underwent naturalist training with Taj CC Africa in Madhya Pradesh. After the training Venkatesh started ‘guiding’ in the Nilgiri biosphere reserve in and around Kabini with the forest department of Karnataka.

His drive to interact with more and more people and create awareness amongst the most varied travellers has taken him to Ranthambore and Kaziranga in his 9 years of being a naturalist.

Venkatesh has been a destination manager and naturalist for a cruise across the Brahmaputra before coming to Forsyth, back to the heart of India, where his career started.

Animesh Manna — With a career in nature and wildlife of over 5 years.

Animesh decided to devote his life to nature even before he finished his formal education in the ‘city of joy’ Kolkata.

During his university years he joined a bird watching group under the tutelage of Mr. Shubhankar Patra, a well-known naturalist, in Bengal and did an intensive field study on nature. Post his university degree in geography he has also worked in different bio-diversity surveys with West Bengal Forest Department as a field assistant namely, “Bio-diversity survey of Chintamani Kar Bird Sanctuary”, “Bio-diversity survey of Lothian Island Sanctuary”, “Bio-diversity survey of Haliday Island Sanctuary”, “Dolphin survey in Sunderban” and in 2015 he worked in a EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) project with Karnataka Road Development Authority sponsored by World bank as a bird expert.

Has also continues to be a member of two established organizations of Kolkata ‘Prakriti Samsad’ and ‘Nature Mates-Nature Club’ which
work around creating awareness amongst children and people in general.

Animesh started his formal career in wildlife as a naturalist since 2012. He is passionate about creating wildlife films and his photographs
have been published in different field guides. He has also helped update the Faunal Checklist in Pench for his wildlife resort.

Dues to his keen personal interest he is currently documenting the life cycle of butterflies and dragonflies.

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