Kartikeya’s love for nature and wildlife began at a very young age while living in his home village nestled in rural central India. He holds a Master’s Degree in Ecology and Environment and has eight years of research experience working with Wildlife Institute India. Kartikeya’s field experience includes a six-year study on the ecology of Indian wolves, which was featured on Animal Planet’s “Desert Wolves of India,” as well as in-depth research on Asiatic lions involving individual animal identification based on whisker patterns and interaction of lions with local communities in Gir National Park. In addition, Kartikeya is a proficient canid trapper and has expertise in catching, anesthetizing and radio collaring carnivores such as wolves, hyenas, lions, jackals, foxes and wild dogs. He has also worked as a photographer on the “Planet Earth” series documentaries produced by the BBC and shown on the Discovery Channel. Kartikeya completed a fourteen-week naturalist training program conducted by &beyond in 2006 and for four years, was head naturalist at Mahua Kothi, Bandhavgarh National Park. In 2010, he was the recipient of the TOFT “Best Lodge Naturalist of the Year.”