Programme Curator
Specialty: Birding · Urban Nature · Forest Ecology · Tribal Ecology
For Masira Shaikh, wildlife is defined by one quiet quality above all: resilience. Five to ten years and 3,000+ hours in the field have taught her that nature, mostly, is deeply intelligent and adaptable — surviving and thriving in the unlikeliest urban corners of Mumbai.
How Masira Shaikh Curates Nature Experiences in Aarey
As a programme curator with Naturalist Explorers, Masira designs educational and cultural nature experiences for every age group, weaving together ecology, community and place in ways that go far beyond a standard trail. Her home ground is Aarey — the green lung of Mumbai — which she has come to know like a second home, alongside the city’s wetlands and urban forests.
Her field bag never leaves without three essentials: a big water bottle, a head torch and mosquito repellent. It’s the kit of someone who has spent countless dawns and dusks out where the wild things are, turning her patient, ground-level knowledge into experiences that connect people to the nature already growing around them.
“Wildlife, mostly, is very resilient and intelligent.”
