Conservation scientist Krithi Karanth has an audacious goal: to strengthen the conservation programmes of the Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS), the organisation she spearheads, across a 100 wildlife reserves of the Eastern and Western Ghats. “We have designed a range of programmes that we know are already working at different scales and depths in the country, but we can go much deeper,” says Krithi, who was named the 2026 Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year, an award she received at the Society’s annual Explorers Festival earlier this month.Also read: Krithi Karanth’s rules of co-existenceKrithi feels that her professional collaboration with National Geographic has come full circle with this honour. “From being their 10,000th grantee to Wayfinder in 2012, and over the years, being awarded multiple grants, I have a 15-year relationship with National Geographic,” she says, recalling that when she returned to India in 2010, after her postdoctoral research at Columbia University, New York, she received her first grant from the Society.“Nat Geo invests deeply with young people, who they think have potential, and supports them long-term. So, I think, for them also it is reassuring and exciting that someone they’ve known for 15 years is doing long-term impactful work,” says the Bengaluru-based Krithi. “The fact that an institution like Nat Geo, which believes in you when you are young, nurtures you and supports you through all your career ups and downs, has chosen me to be the first South Asian to receive this award is something I am very honoured by.”Krithi’s passion for the natural world began very early. Growing up as the daughter of one of India’s leading tiger experts, Ullas Karanth, meant that she spent much of her childhood in forests. “My mum was also a busy professional, so when she had to travel, she would leave me with my dad. And he was usually in the jungle, so I would go along with him and watch animals,” she says about her childhood experiences, which she still cherishes and describes as “absolutely amazing.” Looking back, she feels incredibly privileged to have grown up amidst wildlife. “I was really lucky,” says Krithi, who went on to complete a Master’s in Environmental Science at Yale University in Connecticut and a PhD at Duke University in North Carolina, and is today the CEO of CWS, the organisation founded by her father in 1984.