“I’m Sai Kiran Bhagavathula, a wildlife photographer, nature enthusiast, and founder of Wildlife Whisperers. I was born in Hyderabad but grew up in Warangal, where childhood meant books and trees. My father worked with Indian Railways, giving us stability, while I immersed myself in wildlife books. St. Gabriel’s High School had plenty of green corners where I would sit listening to rustling leaves and bird calls. In 1994, when I was four, my uncle gifted me The Treasury of Children’s Knowledge and Animals of the World. Their worn pages are still with me.

My uncle, also a photographer, introduced me to cameras. At five, I held a film camera for the first time, and those family clicks planted the beginnings of my passion. I was a quiet child, drawn more to poetry, stories, and nature than chatter. By seventh grade, I realised I connected best by sharing knowledge—science, facts, and the things I loved. That path carried me into Electronics & Communication Engineering.

During my BTech, I interned at IIT Madras on an image processor that turned black-and-white images into colour. It showed me how shifting perspectives can transform. After graduating in 2010, I worked across Hyderabad, Chennai, and Mumbai, but weekends were reserved for nature and my DSLR—simple gear, big stories, and even a few awards.

In 2014, I moved to the U.S. for a Master’s in Data Science at UNC Charlotte. Over six years, I explored national parks with my lens, learning more from landscapes than classrooms. Before a trip to Alaska, I bought my first professional camera. Driving into the Arctic Circle at –55 °C was surreal. Standing in that frozen vastness changed me.

The U.S. also showed me quiet responsibility—children would call out littering without hesitation. It reshaped how I thought about conservation. By 2020, I returned to India as a Product Manager, but the wild kept calling. I realised photography shouldn’t just capture beauty; it must tell stories of ecosystems, survival, and connection.

In 2023, I founded Wildlife Whisperers. Before launching, I travelled across India and Kenya, observing how nature inspires innovation: the bullet train’s nose from the kingfisher’s beak, teamwork from elephants, strategy from wolves. That became our mission—to take corporate teams into the wilderness and let nature be the teacher.

Today, Wildlife Whisperers is building that bridge between boardrooms and forests. My lens still seeks snow leopards, tigers, elephants, and even the tiny rusty-spotted cat, but beyond photographs, it is about changing how we see. In nature, no elephant envies a cheetah; every creature thrives by its own design. That is the lesson we carry forward.”

— Sai Kiran Bhagavathula

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