Naturalist
Specialty: Entomology · Urban Wildlife
Trupaank Gautam’s spirit animal is the click beetle — because that’s exactly how he bounces back onto his feet when things turn upside down. It’s a telling choice for a naturalist whose great passion is the vast, overlooked world of insects, and beetles most of all.
Trupaank Gautam: Entomology & Urban Wildlife
Holding a Master’s in Wildlife Conservation and Biodiversity Management, Trupaank has contributed to an agro-forest survey with WWF and a butterfly survey with the Pench Forest Department, working across the tropical forests and urban green spaces of the Western Ghats and Central India. His most memorable field moment has a wry twist: a leopard close call, encountered while he was crouched down filming a beetle.
His focus is urban wildlife — the creatures that dwell and survive within our cities despite everything anthropogenic development throws at them. His field kit is built for the small stuff: a first-aid kit, a macro lens and a specimen kit. And the fact he most loves sharing? That the overwhelming majority of the planet’s wildlife diversity comes from insects — and, within them, from his beloved beetles.
“The more closely you observe the wild, the smaller your ego becomes.”
