The next in the monthly series by WWF-India that highlights niche and unconventional green careers through the stories of well-known personalities from the field of environment and conservation

Most people have one career but I’ve had about five. Journalist, investment banker, software company manager, children’s newspaper editor, and now natural history publisher. The last one arrived unexpectedly, but it feels most like home.

Today, I run Indian Pitta, a nature imprint published by Juggernaut, where I edit and publish books on wildlife, birds, and conservation.But the journey here was anything but straight. I think that is precisely the point. You do not have to follow a conventional path into a green career.

I grew up in Chennai listening to stories about my grandfather, a journalist who worked with the Free Press Journal in Bombay during the years when India won its independence. After a postgraduate programme in Mass Communication in Bombay, I joined The Hindu Business Line, moved into investment banking, and later into software operations. The industries changed, but communication remained at the centre of my work. Those years also exposed me to extraordinary landscapes and wildlife.

Finding my niche

The passion for Nature and birdwatching that now defines my work entered my life through an unexpected place: my son. He became fascinated with birds at a young age. As he was too young to travel alone, I drove him to wetlands, lakes, and national parks around Delhi almost every weekend. Somewhere along the way, I stopped waiting in the car and started paying attention. That was nearly 20 years ago!

At the same time, I ran Child Friendly News, a children’s newspaper. When the pandemic shut it down, I realised I had spent years building the perfect foundation for something new: a deep engagement with the natural world alongside a lifetime of writing and editing. I pitched the idea of a natural history imprint to Juggernaut and Indian Pitta was born in April 2022.

My work now spans the lifecycle of a book. It ranges from evaluating pitches and editing manuscripts to collaborating with artists and book designers, and organising author events. The most rewarding part is discovering unfamiliar landscapes and species through another person’s writing, and being able to indulge my curiosity under the perfectly respectable guise of editorial work.

One particular experience from the early days of Indian Pitta remains fresh in my mind. I had been looking for book ideas to commission when a photograph I had seen years earlier suddenly popped into my mind: a black-and-white image of a young woman leaning over the half-wall of a rustic shelter, her face radiating energy and curiosity. That was J. Vijaya, one of India’s first woman herpetologists, a legendary researcher who re-discovered the long-lost Cochin Forest Cane Turtle — Vijayachelys sylvatica — which is now named after her.

Now, more than 30 years later, the pull of that story drove me to track down Zai Whitaker, co-founder of the Madras Croc Bank, who knew Vijaya closely. We finally connected while I was travelling through Meghalaya’s Garo Hills with my son and that conversation planted the seed for what eventually evolved into Women in the Wild, an anthology celebrating Indian women wildlife biologists including Vijaya, Uma Ramakrishnan, Divya Mudappa, and Jamal Ara. Working on that book made me realise I was exactly where I needed to be.

Discover your strength

If you are considering a career in this space, my first piece of advice is to read. Widely and voraciously. The genesis of good writing is wide reading. There is really no way around that. Further, find something you genuinely enjoy and identify one core strength you can carry across different fields. Take the time to figure out what you are truly good at because that influences so many choices down the line. While the gig economy offers much freedom, there is still something irreplaceable about working within an organisation early in your career. Learning to work with people, navigating teams, and functioning within a larger system are things you simply cannot teach yourself sitting at home, staring into a screen.