The Otter Trotters

Gopakumar studied at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (well, actually, he lost his way, wandered into a CAT exam and found the exit door locked).  Facilitates workshops in negotiation and influencing skills, when he is not following otters - now, don't ask how  these interests came together.  Fascinated by behavioural economics in general and interested in applying the principle of pride-in-my-backyard-wildlife to conserve otters and otter habitat (riparian buffers and wetlands).  Is a member of the Otter Specialist Group of the IUCN.

Gopa lives in Bangalore, because he loves getting stuck in traffic, but would otherwise have migrated to his holt in the beautiful village of Javalagiri years ago.  

And then there are volunteers: 

Anumol, who is now the co-star of a story on otters (along with Mohit, a little boy) is the quiet sort who joined the team in November 2023.  When Gopa asked her in December, if the project was fine with her, she said, "It's a fairy tale!". Both Anu and Yashas are post-grads, one in environment science and the other in ecology, which makes them (in our view) educated elite.

Apoorva who has registered for her PhD on otters, but is crazy enough to volunteer.

Rohan, with a job and a post-doc in badminton, has done as much volunteering as he can digest, but comes back for more.  

And others....

And Dinesh, who is a paid volunteer (which sounds like a contradiction, but is not.  He will only volunteer when he is free, which he generally isn't, leading to grey hair all around).  He lives by the river and by his own set of rules. 

And Jayasri, the star designer of the books on otters, now in London for her Masters.  When reports last came in, she said she had left her heart behind in otter country. 

In otter season, this motley team walks along and in streams, recording otter spraint (that's our codename for poop),  keeping an ear for reports of tigers around the area and one eye out for elephants.  The other eye is on otters, so we multiply our abundance findings by two (yes, that was a joke).  All that stuff is uploaded on Google Earth, which might appear an entirely pointless exercise to you but is precious data for us because it lets us know what we need to conserve. 

We have some friends who are otter enthusiasts too (they have stayed as friends, against their better judgement).  Peeyush is an architect and a wildlife educator and has been a sounding board for the team (there are times when he is sounding bored as well).  He lives in an Airbus 320, but goes home occasionally to wash his clothes and use his solar cooker.