Kritika Balaji

Kritika Bajaji is a wildlife conservation researcher and practitioner with nearly a decade of experience focused on addressing complex environmental challenges. Her work draws on insights from sociology, environmental justice, and behaviour change, advocating for collaborative, cross-sectoral approaches to combat illegal wildlife trade.

Munmun Dhalaria

Munmun Dhalaria, a National Geographic Explorer since 2017, is Director-Producer at Terra Tales LLP, India. With 15 years' experience, she crafts award-winning documentaries on wildlife, science, and social justice for Disney Hotstar, Vice News, and Al Jazeera.

She's filmed Himalayan snow leopards, vultures, Malaysian gibbons, and Sundarbans' swamp tigers, championing ethical, community-centred storytelling worldwide.

Aditi Patil

Aditi, nature conservationist and author of Patriarchy and the Pangolin, holds an MPhil from the University of Cambridge. She co-founded Conservation indica, a women-led, feminist conservation organisation two years ago.

When not chasing field data, she befriends stray cats and documents the mischief of birds.

Satyajeet Gupta

Dr Satyajeet Gupta is an alumnus of CES, IISc Bengaluru, with postdoctoral research at SLU and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology. He currently serves as Senior Advisor at the Centre of Chemical Ecology (UAS-B) and External Consultant at IIHS's School of Human Development.

Sandhya Sekar

Sandhya Sekar’s career has taken her from tracking butterflies for a PhD in ecology to science journalism, freelancing, entrepreneurship and, eventually, programme leadership.

Along the way, she trained as a science journalist, wrote for Indian and international publications, co-founded and edited Research Matters, and became one of Mongabay-India’s first hires. She now leads programmes at Mongabay-India, building the teams and systems that support its journalism.

In a fitting full circle, she was a volunteer at the very first SCCS-Bengaluru.

Dipika Bajpai

Dipika Bajpai, an officer within the Indian Forest Service, is recognized for her steadfast commitment to forest governance and ecological restoration.

Her career is marked by the implementation of large-scale afforestation projects and the enhancement of community engagement in wilderness preservation. Notably, she has been instrumental in securing vulnerable habitats by reclaiming and protecting forest territories from encroachment.