Our Team

We are a travelling school of practising professional naturalists with the goal to expand India’s body of qualified nature and safari guides. Our 40 years of combined expertise spans all habitats of India and our catalogue of experience is incredibly varied. We have trained the professionals at wildlife lodges, non-profit organisations, luxury travel companies…we even provided skill development courses for the forest department, themselves! We love what we do, and more than that, we love sharing our passion with others - every course we teach cultivates new guides who will leave lasting impacts on this planet, which ultimately, is why we formed Nature Guides Academy.

  • Fondly called Nara, he comes from the tiny village of Belathur, which adjoins the famous Nagarahole National Park. Having grown up around the elephant paradise of Kabini, his early inspiration to observe nature came from studying the birds around home. As he grew, so did his fondness for them and the other denizens that share their space, leading him to set foot in his current profession as a naturalist.

    With over a decade of experience in his chosen field, Narayana’s first full-time stint as a naturalist was in Kabini. He spent over five years with various wildlife lodges in Karnataka, particularly around Kabini and Coorg. His love for travel and the desire to explore the wildlife that lay beyond the boundaries of his home state brought him to central India and Taj Safaris, a company he chose for its reputation as the foremost name in luxury wildlife experiences in India. Arriving in Madhya Pradesh in 2010, he was one among a few people handpicked and trained by expert &Beyond trainers. His desire to explore central India and its wilderness has so far taken him to Pench, Bandhavgarh, Panna and Kanha, where he was the Head Naturalist at Banjaar Tola lodge, and Chief Trainer for Taj Safaris.

    He has led wildlife expeditions to Ladakh for snow leopard, Himalayan wildlife, Kaziranga, Dudhwa and Ranthambhore in addition to Southern Indian wildlife, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

    He hopes to inspire youngsters back home to dream big and work hard to make what they want out of life!

  • Born and raised in Bombay, Payal completed her Masters in Geology from St. Xavier’s College. Alongside, she got trained as a Mountaineer and got her diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication. After her post-graduation, through her interactions with the Bombay Natural History Society, she learned about and went through the Taj Safaris-&Beyond naturalist training program. She spent the most joyful 3 years working as a naturalist stationed at Banjaar Tola, Kanha National Park with the company.

    She has been freelancing as a Tour Leader since 2011. She guides in Nepal, Bhutan, India, Sri Lanka & Borneo. Along with her husband Harsha, she has been involved with training guides across the country for over a decade and finds that to be the most rewarding work. They also curated and ran India’s first online guide training programme for rural youth during the covid lockdown.

    She has authored a few book/booklets-

    Butterflies of Rao Jodha Park (Mehrangarh Museum Trust)

    The lifelong question (Story Weaver)

    Handbook for Nature Guides (NCF)

  • Harsha who is now one of India’s leading freelance nature guides, trainers, and educators, left formal college early to rescue urban wildlife with People for Animals in Bangalore. From Sanctuary Asia to Jungle Lodges & Resorts, he honed his skills before joining Taj Safaris in the Central Indian jungles. Trained by experts from India and South Africa, he excelled as Head Naturalist and Assistant Guide Trainer for a large variety of their sites.

    In 2010, he went solo, leading wildlife tours and photography expeditions across India and beyond, from Nepal to Brazil. With his wife, Payal, they've trained nature guides nationwide, crafted India's inaugural online Nature Guide course, and authored the definitive 'Handbook for Nature Guides.' Every year, they share their expertise as visiting faculty at a Forestry College in Maharashtra.

    Harsha's expertise extends to collaborations with global documentary giants like BBC, National Geographic, and Discovery, where he's spent countless hours behind the lens, enriching his naturalist experience.

  • Having grown up in the city of Bangalore Shree’s first taste for wildlife came in the form of snakes! The campus he grew up on, was a small patch of urban forest in the middle of the city. It’s here that he encountered his first snake. The intrigue of knowing how snakes survive without legs is what started him on his journey to be a wild lifer.

    Taking the first opportunity to come his way, Shree took off to the Western Ghats to spend the next 6 months in the lap of nature learning about the creatures of the wild in an ecotourism course. He also volunteered with an organization here which was working on King Cobras.

    Having heard about Taj Safaris in central India he decided the time was ripe to try and change his passion for the wild into a career (at the young age of 19). Who better to start your career with than Taj Safaris?

    After a gruelling training cum selection process by expert trainers of &Beyond with Taj Safaris, Shree became one of the youngest Naturalists to ever join the company. Over the many years he has spent in central India jungles the passion for snakes has only grown. The best times for Shree are when he has to go rescue a snake from a villager’s home. It gives him great satisfaction that over the years people living around the park have actually started calling him for rescuing snakes rather than just killing them.

    t is in theses jungles that Shree actually fell in love with the aspect of meeting people from around the world and guiding them. He found that the wilderness was so much more than just snakes. It is in the central Indian jungles that shree found a fondness for birds. Since joining Taj Safaris, he has done many trips to different parts of the country exclusively looking for bird species he has not seen. He also likes to get his guests interested in birds as it is one aspect of wildlife that can be pursued even in the cities from the comfort of one’s home.

    In the last 17 Years that he has been guiding, Shree has been part of many programs that focusses at community development around the parks in central India. He also finds that his interest lies in training. Over the years he along with other Taj Safaris naturalists have been part of training over 60 local guides who accompany guests into the park. He has also been part of training new naturalists who are enlisted by the company.

    When asked about the best aspect of his job, Shree says, beating the Sun every single day and guiding guests from around the world takes the cake.