Nature Trail Expert
Specialty: Forest Ecology · Angiosperm Taxonomy
On a camping night in the rainforests of Coorg, Santoshi Kadu heard something walking into the forest just fifty metres from where she was about to sleep. She woke her friend; soon dogs were barking from a nearby village and firecrackers were bursting. Fifteen minutes later they went to investigate — broken barbed wire, snapped branches, scratches on trees and giant footmarks pressed into the soil. It was enough to confirm the visitor: a rogue elephant, giant and intelligent, had passed right by their camp. It remains one of her best experiences in the wild.
Field Experience & Expertise: Santoshi Kadu
A Master’s in Taxonomy of Angiosperms and a Wilderness First Aid certification from the Hanifl Centre underpin five to ten years and 3,000+ hours of fieldwork across the Western Ghats, Central India and the Deccan Plateau. As a nature-trail expert, Santoshi specialises in forest ecology and leads trails and treks in and around urban areas, having volunteered with WWF’s Ek Prithvi program.
What sets her trails apart is attention to the overlooked. She connects people to nature through different activities and by sharing the general, basic knowledge that many interpreters skip right past. Her belief is grounded and unshakeable: there is nothing more powerful than nature — we are nothing without it — and as an interpreter she simply wants to make people aware of that.
“वृक्षवल्ली आम्हा सोयरे वनचरे — the trees and creepers of the forest are our kin.”
