Dr. P. Gowri Shankar

He is the founder-director of Kalinga Foundation in Agumbe. A wildlife biologist working on king cobras for close to two decades. He obtained his doctorate from Odisha Maharaja Sriram Chandra Bhanjadeo University (ex. North Orissa University), India and was also an exchange student with the Uppsala University, Sweden. A pioneer in radio telemetry study on king cobras. He is a TED Fellow 2020, a TED and TEDx speaker and has been featured in several wildlife documentaries done by leading channels like the National Geographic, Discovery, Animal Planet, NatGeoWild, Smithsonian Channel and BBC. He has conducted long-term studies on endangered and charismatic reptiles and has strongholds on research in both in-situ and ex-situ conservation strategies, including captive breeding. He was awarded ‘Herpetologist of the Year 2015’ by the Swedish Herpetological Society. He has authored and co-authored scientific papers on king cobras, other herpetological topics, and book reviews. His recent research on the king cobras revealed four distinct species, including two new species. He is also an influencer with lakhs of social media followers, where he is spreading awareness and wildlife conservation message far and wide to all the people alike.