Founder Trustee

Siddharth Rao

Siddharth Rao, founder trustee of Adavi Trust and a 2015 Kinship Conservation Fellow, holds a master’s degree in Ecology with over two decades of experience in conservation practice, wildlife research, and media.
His expertise spans carnivore ecology and conservation, restoration ecology, community-led conservation, environmental justice, markets for conservation, and outreach and education.

Based in the Deccan savannah grasslands of South India at an off-grid field station, Siddharth previously served as Director for Ecology and Conservation at the Timbaktu Collective and currently leads the Conservation thesis at Rainmatter Foundation.

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Founder Trustee

Manisha Kairaly

Manisha, Founder Trustee of Adavi Trust, specializes in exploring ecological connections sustaining rural craft and food cultures. With over fifteen years in non-profit management and social entrepreneurship, her expertise spans agro-biodiversity, resilient circular economies, and regenerative design in product, textile, biophilic, and eco-restoration domains.

Previously, Manisha directed Enterprise Development and Design at the Timbaktu Collective, pioneering initiatives like Timbaktu Weaves—a woman-owned handloom producer enterprise—and Timbaktu Organic, supporting 2,000+ smallholder farmers in Southern India. She also founded Arugu, promoting regenerative practices rooted in commons philosophy, focusing on ecological approaches to food and craft.

GIS and Drone mapping Specialist

Gautham Ramachandra

A conservation biologist by training, Gautham is a restoration ecologist based in the Netherlands. He has been involved with several projects in India, ranging from behavioral ethology of King Cobras to the management of invasive species – Lantana, in the Bandipur Tiger Reserve. His current interests lie in exploring the application of UAV platforms for landscape restoration at scale. He has since worked on restoration projects across several geographies, including the Americas, Africa, Australia and Europe. Gautham holds a Master’s degree in Nature Conservation from Wageningen University.

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Conservation and Research Advisor

Joseph Vattakaven

Joseph Vattakaven has over 20 years of experience in Wildlife Research and Conservation. His extensive fieldwork includes tracking 10 radio-collared tigers using elephants to study their predation ecology, behavior, and ranging patterns in Kanha Tiger Reserve during his PhD research with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII). Following this, he spent a decade at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), initially as Tiger Lead for India's National Tiger Program across seven landscapes, and later as Tiger Conservation Advisor and Tiger Recovery and Landscape Lead for WWF's Global Tiger Program covering 13 Tiger Range countries.

Joseph's diverse interests also encompass Wolves (studied radio-collared Indian Wolves for his master’s thesis with WII in Western India), Butterflies (contributed to India’s first Butterfly Park with ATREE), Bees, and Mysticism.

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Field Station Coordinator

Girija Angajala

Girija has been actively involved in caring for domestic and wild animals for over a decade now. She has reared and cared for cattle, goats and sheep, chicken, dogs and cats since her childhood. Over the years she has also been involved in rescue and rehabilitation of injured wild animals such as peacocks, parrots, babblers, squirrels, civets and monitor lizards. Girija is currently engaged with the caretaking and welfare of domestic animals in the Timbaktu campus and Eethavanam field station.

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Her areas of interest and study are human and wildlife interactions, ethnobotany, rescue and rehabilitation, restoration ecology and nature education - especially for children. She also works on raising awareness among rural communities about co- existing with wildlife and is keen to explore  snakebite conflict mitigation.

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Project Lead

Naveen Chhabria

Naveen, originally a software engineer, underwent a transformative journey into Wildlife Rehabilitation, where he dedicated nearly 8 years rescuing and rehabilitating wildlife with WRRC and PFA. This experience propelled him into conservation and ecology, leading him to volunteer at The Shola Trust, Vanastree, and eventually coordinate The Kalpavalli Community Conservation Area at Timbaktu Collective.

Passionate about education, ecology, and young minds, Naveen transitioned to working with schools. He served as an educator at Creative School and I Can School, focusing on fostering children's deep connection with nature. He introduced re-greening initiatives and incorporated landwork into school curricula.

Currently, Naveen has returned to ecology, focusing on Education and Outreach at Adavi Trust. His journey underscores a commitment to integrating environmental education into communities and schools alike.

Research Advisor

Sreekar Rachakonda

As a tropical ecologist, Sreekar is interested in matrix management, habitat creation and ultimately in questions such as where and how we maintain biodiversity in production landscapes, and the effects of biodiversity in the provision of ecosystem services.
He uses field experiments and analytical methods to understand habitat use, movement ecology
and ecosystem services of the study subjects. Most of his work is based on birds and herptiles as a model system.​​​​

Communications and Stakeholder Engagement

Anshruta B A

Anshruta is a designer and illustrator, with an inherent curiosity for problem-solving in various domains. She loves getting her hands dirty and that fuels her love for ideating, making, and creating.  

​Raised in environments surrounded by nature and
nature enthusiasts, she shares a deep passion
for the environment.

Her true fulfillment comes from crafting content
that transcends mere engagement, aiming instead
for a lasting impact on people and the planet.