Nature, up close: Hidden rhythms of the world

From safari guides to schoolchildren, a growing movement in Karnataka is teaching people how to see, interpret, and care for nature

In the nooks and crannies of our fast-paced world, countless strange and beautiful life forms continue to live their lives. To the unacquainted eye, their presence may be easy to ignore, walk past, or relegate to the back of our minds. Noticing this growing disconnect, nature educators in Karnataka are encouraging slower, more attentive ways of engaging with the world. By inviting people to pause and observe with intention, naturalists are inspiring people to understand the lives – both big and small – unfolding alongside our own.

It was encounters with forests, an understanding of the complex web of life, and a fascination with the stories of its many characters that led Payal Mehta and Harsha Jayaramaiah, who grew up in Bengaluru and Mumbai, to build careers as naturalists and safari guides.

With over two decades of experience as safari guides, they understand their role in bridging visitors’ expectations with the realities of forest ecosystems. While many tourists arrive hoping to sight iconic animals like elephants and tigers, trained guides are able to draw attention to the intricate ecological interactions unfolding across biodiverse landscapes.

“A professionally trained guide might not only tell the story of the tiger but also the rivers that originate in tiger reserves, the birds, insects, and other animals encountered on the safari,” explains Harsha.

Guides can also foster genuine connections with wildlife. “As a guide, you have the opportunity to share your education and awareness with your audience, with love and sensitivity, rather than simply presenting bullet points,” says Payal.

Recognising an emerging need within the tourism industry and the potential to cultivate interest in the natural world, the duo began offering informal training programmes for safari guides across India. To formalise this work, they established the Nature Guides Academy (NGA) three years ago.

Their flagship five-week residential course at Kanha Tiger Reserve is aimed at working safari guides as well as professionals seeking to transition into naturalist roles, with an annual intake of 18 students. Sunil Reddy, a graduate of the programme, left a 15-year career in IT after completing the course and now works as a senior naturalist at a lodge in Kabini.

“The course taught us how to interpret nature. In Kabini, for instance, fresh grass sprouts near the river in April and May,” he says, noting that elephants seek it out as vegetation in the forest becomes scarce during these months. “You also learn to observe herd dynamics, the interactions between calves and ageing elephants, and, when shared with guests, these details enrich their experience.”

The course fee is Rs 1.75 lakh. Close to 60% of students in the course receive a partial or full scholarship.

Aditi Rao, who took a free online course by the NGA for young people in the Western Ghats, explains how nature education can be transformative. “The course developed our observation skills through assignments that required nature journaling, or videos of us guiding relatives or friends,” she recalls. Ultimately, the course struck something in her and went on to define her career path, prompting her to pursue an MSc in Wildlife Sciences. “It opened up a world of possibilities in nature education and provided me with a network, guidance and opportunity,” she says.

Local biodiversity

Today, Aditi works with Nature Classrooms, an organisation integrating school learning with nature education. Through workshops and interventions with educators, the organisation aims to include ecology and local biodiversity in the existing Environmental Science curriculum.

The need for such holistic nature education was highlighted by the National Curriculum Framework in 2023, says Priyanka Prakash, senior manager at the organisation. “We encourage educators to incorporate resource materials and activities into their existing lesson plans through workshops,” she explains.

For instance, the Nature Classrooms recognised that existing alphabet charts included giraffes, even though they are not found in the wild in India. “We wanted to recontextualise this into species that students can observe in their surroundings and ended up developing alphabet charts in five languages featuring the local biodiversity,” Priyanka adds.

Gousia Taj, an educator from Hesaraghatta who teaches the EVS curriculum in three schools, explains how the nature bingo exercise is particularly popular with children. “A recent exercise involving spiders, nature bingo, got the children particularly enthused. The class was disappointed when they could not find the signature spider (Argiope anasuja) as a part of the exercise,” she recalls.

Two weeks later, when she entered the classroom, she was surprised to see the children jumping and shouting in excitement. “They rushed me to an area outside the washroom. They had found the spider!” she says. In this way, through activities and discussions, the course has familiarised students with the plants, animals, and insects around them, nurturing sensitivity, curiosity, and a love for these creatures.

Curiosity

This curiosity and ownership in one’s surroundings is essential for children, explains Sudhir Kiran, President of Ashoka Shishu Vihara schools in Bengaluru. “We have so much happening around us in our environment. Nature education provides children with the opportunity to understand this and realise how it impacts us, how they can contribute to it, and how they can articulate their support for it,” he explains.

His schools have run programmes with Thicket Tales, which works to integrate nature education with science and social science curricula.

Saidevi Sanjeeviraja, founder of the organisation, explains how weekly outdoor experiences address the relevance of what is available to the children academically. “The curriculum can sometimes feel abstract. Concepts like climate are much more accessible when we connect them to backyard nature,” she says.

Having spent her childhood at the foothills of the Western Ghats, Saidevi enjoyed unlimited unstructured time in nature. “I had so many questions about birds, trees, soil and insects. This built a natural curiosity that might be lacking in urban contexts, where interactions with nature are more structured,” she says. Through the Learn Around Nature programme, a year-long initiative, students visit Cubbon Park or Lal Bagh, where they are encouraged to observe, interact with nature, and engage in discussions about soil and water.

At the end of the year, students undertake projects based on problems they have identified throughout the programme. For example, a team at a school in Jayanagar identified nine unauthorised garbage dumps and contacted municipal authorities to have them cleared. “Some dumps returned, but others remained clean,” she says.

“We are happy because we have contributed to change and do not feel pity when we look at the dumps. We know we are capable of solving the problem,” one student says.

An unexpected change has been how the programme, which caters to students in Classes 5 to 8, has had a ripple effect on younger children as well, explains Kiran. “In their interactions with older students, the younger children are able to better articulate their surroundings and the environment,” he says.