2017

Born and raised in Nagpur, India, the tiger capital of the country (or rather world). The close proximity to India’s seven major tiger reserves built passion in me towards tigers and other wildlife. I did my graduation in computer science at Nagpur University, India and worked for IT industry for more than 2 years. There was something missing while working in corporate industry, passion for wildlife forced me to take a major career shifting step. I utilized the opportunity provided by one of the grass-roots NGO Satpuda Foundation, working in central Indian tiger reserves on community based wildlife conservation. I got wide exposure of various aspects of communities and wildlife conservation while working on field for 2 years with them. I worked on the Satpuda Landscape Tiger Partnership (formerly known as Programme).

This exposure gave me confidence to deal with complex matters of ecology and conservation issues. But technical aspect of research was missing. I pursued academics to fill this gap, joined Masters Program in ecology and environment studies at Nalanda University, India. The diploma at WildCRU will direct my career path in a specific field of Wildlife Conservation. It will equip me with the research skills I am need for further research and conservation initiatives.

My research interests are ecology and its relation with the communities. I hope to pursue action research in the central Indian landscape, which will yield effective and long term conservation actions benefiting both humans as well as wildlife in the area.

Update September 2019

Saket is currently a Social Scientist at a Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan India, working with the communities living in the core area of the reserve.