Naturalist · Reel Content Creator
Specialty: Forest Ecology · Floral Diversity · Ethnobotany
People meet Prathamesh Gawde and assume that, as a self-professed plant person, he must be hopeless with birds, butterflies and animals. Then he starts talking about plant and animal ecology, and the assumption falls apart. His favourite myth to bust is that plants have no language and don’t communicate — a misconception he loves dismantling on every trail.
How Prathamesh Gawde Explores Forest Ecology
Known in the field as “outlander,” Prathamesh is a naturalist and reel content creator specialising in forest ecology and floral diversity. With 3,000+ hours across the tropical forests, wetlands and urban green spaces of the Western Ghats, Deccan Plateau and coastal India, he holds a B.Sc. in Botany and Zoology and has contributed to tree surveys in Lonavala and bird-and-bat projects in Karnataka. His most memorable encounter was finding his first Lantern flower during a trek up Sinhagad — a moment he says he’ll remember for a lifetime.
His spirit animal is, delightfully, the hamster: happiest getting lost in his natural habitat, munching on whatever’s in front of him, and then sleeping soundly. His field bag holds a magnifying glass, a first-aid pouch and his binoculars. Working with all age groups on forest schools, sensory nature walks and ethnobotany, Prathamesh carries one conviction into every session — that wildlife should be the most important chapter in every human’s story, and life only gets beautiful once we stop believing we’re the centre of the ecosystem.
“The whole of life is coming to terms with yourself and the natural world. — David Attenborough”
