Freelance Naturalist
Specialty: Birds · Butterflies · Marine Life · Reptiles
Shubham Hadkar doesn’t walk into forests just to complete trails. He walks in hoping nature will hand him one unforgettable moment — the kind that stays in the heart forever. One recently found him near the Gad river bank at Malvan, standing quietly by the mangroves, when four smooth-coated otters surfaced right in front of him, diving and rising in perfect coordination before vanishing silently into the mangrove patch like ghosts.
Shubham Hadkar: Education & Research
That patience is backed by serious study. Shubham holds an M.Sc. in Biodiversity, Wildlife Conservation & Management, and his research assessed butterfly diversity — species richness, abundance and altitudinal gradients — across the tri-district bordering landscape of Almora, Pauri and Chamoli in Uttarakhand. His five to ten years in the field span the Western Ghats, Himalaya, Deccan Plateau and coastal India, taking in birds, butterflies, marine life and reptiles alike.
As a freelance naturalist, he facilitates in four languages, including Malvani, connecting participants from primary-schoolers to adults with the wildlife around them. He always hopes for the unexpected or rare sighting on a trail, so that participants walk away with something truly unforgettable — and, like a butterfly moving from flower to flower, he moves through forests with curiosity and calm rather than dominance.
“Nature never speaks loudly, yet it teaches the deepest lessons to those who quietly listen.”
