WCT Team
Dr. Anish Andheria
Dr. Anish Andheria is the President of WCT. He has been awarded the prestigious Carl Zeiss Conservation Award 2008. He is a Fellow of LEAD and has helped set up Kids for Tigers, a nation-wide conservation education programme which currently reaches out to over one million school children. After completing his Ph.D. from Institute of Chemical Technology, he went on to pursue a Masters Degree in Wildlife Biology and Conservation. He is a large carnivore specialist with field knowledge on predator-prey relationships. A wildlife photographer of repute, he has photographed some of the most remote wildlife reserves of India. He has also co-authored two books on Indian wildlife. He runs a wildlife rescue center in Mumbai and is a Trustee of The Climate Project, India. A natural communicator, he is one of India's leading motivational speakers, and has introduced thousands of people to the joys of nature and the rationale for nature conservation.
Dr. Sandeep Deshmukh
Dr. Sandeep Deshmukh has a Ph.D. in Education. He has completed a Masters in Anthropology followed by a Diploma in Business Administration. He is a certified trainer in agriculture and dairy extension, research methods, gender and project design. He has worked in the government, non-government and corporate setup for over two decades. He possesses front-line experience in training, teaching, research, management and grant making and has authored three books.
Rushikesh Chavan
Rushikesh is a post graduate in Environmental Sciences, with nine years of experience. He has represented the BNHS at the Maharashtra State Wildlife Advisory Board and the Special Task Force for conservation of Central Indian Wild Buffalo constituted by the Supreme Court and Chattisgarh Government. He has prepared the management plan for buffer zone of Yawal WLS. He has been part of several critical conservation initiatives across India and been integral part in several projects such as Mangrove and Forest restoration, conservation of Giant Clams in Lakshadweep. He has done capacity development programmes for the Indian Army and Corporates. He has coordinated courses in natural history and authored several articles on conservation issues of India.
Milind Pariwakam’s deep rooted passion for wildlife encouraged him to give up a corporate job for a Master’s in Wildlife Biology and Conservation at NCBS, where he worked extensively on developing a photographic population estimation technique for wild herbivores. Since then, he has worked to strengthen the tiger conservation initiatives of the Wildlife Trust of India, particularly on the estimation of tiger densities in the Terai and Central Indian landscapes and human-tiger conflict mitigation in Uttar Pradesh. Prior to his shift to a career in wildlife, Mr. Milind Pariwakam worked in the sales and marketing team for corporates such as ITC Ltd. and HDFC Bank after an M.B.A from Nagpur University.
Dr. Rakesh Kumar Singh
Dr. Rakesh Kumar Singh is an alumnus of the Wildlife Institute of India, with a Doctorate in Wildlife Sciences. His Ph.D. topic was “Impact of iron-ore mining on the elephant habitat of Singbhum forests, Bihar”. He is one of the foremost trainers on wildlife crime prevention in India and has helped train over 10,500 frontline forest staff in over 100 protected areas across 16 states during his decade long career with reputed organizations such as WTI and WWF-India. Rakesh is a member of several statutory bodies of Bihar such as State Board for Wildlife, State Expert Appraisal Committee and Tiger Conservation Foundation. He is also empanelled with MOEF, Government of India as an expert to provide inputs on forest diversion proposals. He is also a member of a committee constituted by the NTCA for the appraisal of Tiger Conservation Plan of the tiger reserves situated in five states (U.P., Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand and Rajasthan).
Dr. Avinash S. Jadhav
Dr. Avinash S. Jadhav completed his MBBS and MD (Public Health) from Seth GSMC & TNMC respectively from Mumbai University. He has done a Diploma course in Information Technology from Excel Institute, Mumbai and a course in Hospital Administration from TISS. He has worked on Public health for 12 years with respectable NGOs such as WHO, UNICEF, IMA-GFATM, CBCI and also with Union and State Governments. His areas of expertise include Capacity Building, providing Technical Advice for national programmes such as Polio, Tuberculosis, AIDs, Epidemics and Measles. While with WHO, he worked on Polio in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and participated in effective planning, management, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of surveillance, supplemental immunization activities and routine immunization. His has also been a WHO- RNTCP Consultant to Rajasthan and Maharashtra. He has assisted the State District Health authorities, NGOs and other sectors in establishing best practices during scaling up of all components of the "Stop TB" strategy.
Kiran S. Inamdar
Kiran S. Inamdar has a M.Com. and MBA degree. He is a national trainer in Entrepreneurship Development accredited by Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), Ahmedabad. He has worked in the Semi-Govt., non-govt. and corporate setups for over 28 years. He possesses front-line experience in Micro-entrepreneurship Development, Management Consultancy, Achievement Motivation Training, Integrated Village Development and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Projects.
Sheetal Navgire
Sheetal Navgire is a graduate in Zoology from Mumbai University and a post graduate in Psychotherapy and Counseling from the Institute of Psychotherapy and Management Sciences, Mumbai. She started her career in the field of telecommunication but her love for wildlife, compelled her to pursue a career in conservation. This took her to the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), where she coordinated the photo/video documentation of projects and worked on creating awareness programmes for students. Subsequently, she was asked to handle the formulation of annual plans and the monitoring and evaluation of several field projects. As a member of IFAW-WTI’s Emergency Relief Network, she did a month-long internship on Wild Animal Care and Treatment in Assam. An avid painter, she continues to strive for environmental preservation.
Kiran Rahalkar
Kiran Rahalkar has done his masters in wildlife biology and conservation from NCBS, Bangalore, where he worked on the socio-economic aspects of human-leopard conflict in Maharashtra. In addition to this he has also worked on the parasite ecology of the tiger and other large carnivores in the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve. An ardent bird enthusiast, he has worked on the Great Indian Bustard advocacy and vulture monitoring projects. He is the city coordinator of Kids for Tigers - a Sanctuary Tiger Programme.
