Photos: Take a walk on the wild side with naturalist Sangita Mani

Taj Safaris naturalist Sangita Mani’s job sounds suspiciously like a paid trip. She spends most of her time touring nationwide parks or ushering friends round on nature walks. Here are photos from her time on the job, taken at the Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh.  

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Sangita Mani with a non-venomous buff-striped keelback. A naturalist with Taj Safaris, Mani, 39, relies in the Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh and is liable for planning customised excursions and nature walks for friends of Taj lodges.(Photo by Narayana)

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There’s nothing routine about her job, Mani says, and that’s one among the issues she actually enjoys about it. “I love the unpredictability that living in the wilderness brings, which involves casually stumbling upon a commander butterfly basking in the sun.”(Photo by Sangita Mani)

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A tough floor barasingha or swamp deer feeds on aquatic vegetation. “This is a very special species of deer found only in Kanha and now Satpura after relocation,” Mani explains.  (Photo by Sangita Mani)

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On sizzling summer time days, she usually sees tigers lounging in watering holes inside the park. A very valuable reminiscence was watching a tigress stalk a younger swamp deer fawn close to one such water physique. “All the other safari vehicles had moved ahead and we were the only ones to witness it. It was unforgettable,” she says.(Photo by Sangita Mani)

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Though she’s gone down the identical paths lots of of occasions, every time the expertise is completely different, Mani says. “Sometimes I just stop to capture something like beautiful fungi growing on a dead tree.”(Photo by Sangita Mani)

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An Indian muntjac or barking deer friends via thick foliage. Being a naturalist isn't a lot a job as a lifestyle, Mani says. “Each one of us can be one, regardless of the jungle we live in — urban or otherwise. Be conscious of your surroundings,” she says.(Photo by Sangita Mani)

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At the second, Mani has taken day off from the discipline, to look after her 13-month-old son. She nonetheless goes on walks and drives every now and then. On one such latest jaunt, she noticed this feminine big wooden spider making a meal of a frequent tailorbird trapped in her web.(Photo by Sangita Mani)

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An Indian scops owl in its roost. “Birds are the easiest entryway into nature, and once you start appreciating them, they give you so much joy,” Mani says.(Photo by Sangita Mani)

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A white-throated kingfisher at Kanha. Mani confesses that she is on a secret mission to transform each individual she meets into a hen fanatic. "It takes the pressure off me to find a tiger!" she laughs.(Photo by Sangita Mani)