Tiger Man, Burning Bright!

K. Ullas Karanth, originally trained as an engineer, pursued wildlife biology, earning a master’s from the University of Florida (1988) and a doctorate from Mangalore University (1993). Focusing on tiger ecology, he has published over 150 scientific articles and twelve books in English and Kannada. He received the Fellowship of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Padma Shri, and the J. Paul Getty Award from World Wildlife Fund-USA. He holds academic affiliations at the University of Florida and Manipal Academy of Higher Education.

K. VijayRaghavan is DAE-Homi Bhabha Chair Professor at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR, Bangalore. From 2018 to 2022, he served as Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India and Chairperson of PM-STIAC, helping initiate numerous national science, technology, and innovation missions. He now focuses on enabling sustainable development amid climate change, strengthening India’s university and research systems, and advocating for investment in fundamental research. His research examines the nervous system and muscles to understand how complex behaviour emerges during animal development.

P. J. Dilip Kumar retired from the Indian Forest Service (Karnataka cadre, 1974) in 2012, from the post of Director-General Forests and Special Secretary, Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. In Karnataka, he served as Chief Wildlife Warden and Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, alongside roles in forestry administration, research, and education. He holds a BSc in Chemistry from Loyola College (Madras University) and an MSc from IIT Bombay, and earned a PhD in Forest Economics from University College, Bangor (UK), under a Commonwealth Scholarship.

Dr. Krithi K. Karanth is CEO at the Centre for Wildlife Studies and Professor at Duke University, holding a PhD from Duke and an M.E.Sc. from Yale. Her 28 years of research spans species extinctions, tourism, resettlement, land-use change, hunting and trade, and human–wildlife interactions. With over 150 published articles. She has mentored over 300 young scientists and designed award-winning programs including Wild Seve and Wild Shaale. Her work has appeared in National Geographic, BBC, and the Washington Post. Her 50+ awards include the Rolex Prize and McNulty Prize; in 2026, she became the first Asian recipient of the Royal Geographical Society’s Esmond B. Martin Prize.

Narayan Ramachandran is Chairman of TeamLease Services Ltd., co-Chairman of Unitus Capital, and Chairman of Vivriti Group and UC Inclusive Credit. He spent over three decades on Wall Street, mostly with Morgan Stanley, after beginning his career at Goldman Sachs. He co-founded Takshashila Institution and holds a B.Tech from IIT Bombay and an MBA from the University of Michigan. He writes a fortnightly column, “A Visible Hand,” for The Mint, and serves on the Advisory Council of the Centre for Wildlife Studies.

Joshua Mathew is a Bengaluru-based writer whose first book, The Last White Hunter: Reminiscences of a Colonial Shikari, marked his entry into writing.

Praveen Bhargav has been a volunteer conservationist since 1982. He co-founded Wildlife First in 1995 and has served on the National Board for Wildlife and various Ministry of Environment and Forests expert committees. A former Trustee of the Centre for Wildlife Studies, he has supported Dr. Ullas Karanth’s research for years, authored two books on Wildlife Law, and serves on the Supreme Court’s Segur Plateau Elephant Corridor Inquiry Committee.

Karthik Venkatesh is Executive Editor at Penguin Random House India, commissioning and editing non-fiction and fiction. He is the author of two young-adult books: 10 Indian Languages and How They Came to Be and 10 Makers of the Indian Constitution. He grew up in Bangalore speaking Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, English, Dakhani, and Hindi.