Born as the daughter of an agriculturalist, I was raised on plantations in South India and Papua New Guinea. My childhood years were spent amidst a lot of greenery, in a variety of landscapes, and this inculcated an inbred love of nature. In May 2005, I joined Nature Conservation Foundation, as their Programme Manager, I moved to Bangalore in October 2008 and continued to be a part of the NCF family, in the role of Senior Consultant, and subsequently took on the role of Conference Coordinator for a new upcoming Student Conference for Conservation Science, Bangalore, (inspired by the Cambridge conference's success), for which NCF is a partner organization. I am now an Executive Assistant with the Snow Leopard Trust and work closely with Charudutt Mishra, who is based in Bangalore. I am also the Program Co-ordinator for the Snow Leopard Network and administer their grants program. I continue to enjoy my association with a lot of NCF’s students, who are based in Bangalore and also appreciate the interaction with the fraternity of conservation scientists, from various institutions in Bangalore. Email: rakhee@ncf-india.org