Naturalist
Specialty: Herpetology · Entomology
Yashraj Thakare — known in the field by the wonderful nickname ‘Oreo Dolphin’ — started out loving bugs. That fascination for insects slowly transformed into a fascination for herpetofauna, and today his focus lies primarily in herpetology and entomology, the small and often misunderstood creatures of the wild.
His most vivid memory comes from Pench, where he and a few friends stayed up listening to the forest. A growl sounded far off; they fell silent and focused. It returned, closer, and kept getting closer, until they flashed their lights and saw a pair of eyes shining back at them just a hundred feet away. It’s the kind of pin-drop-silent encounter that stays with a naturalist for life.
About Yashraj Thakare
Yashraj’s training is substantial — a Bachelor’s in Zoology, a Master’s in Wildlife Conservation Action, the BNHS naturalist training program, and a WWF Child Safeguarding Policy course — and his fieldwork includes the Terai Tiger Project with the Wildlife Trust of India. Above all, he’s on a mission to bust one persistent myth: most snakes are harmless. It seems obvious, yet most people don’t know it. Snakes, he explains, want to get away from us as much as we want to get away from them.
“Feel it, understand it — that’s all. Don’t over-complicate nature.”
