Bengaluru's The Naturalist School offers India's first structured certified naturalist course
Bengaluru (PTI): For nearly a decade, Siddesh Shekar (33) has been learning how to be a naturalist on the job, from private wildlife tour operators to national parks like the Jim Corbett National Park.
But the three-and-half months he spent learning for Certified Naturalist (CNAT) Course, first structured programme in India -- which is certified by the government, and offers formal certification for nature guides, wildlife interpreters, and eco-tourism professionals -- Shekar said he learnt to look beyond tiger tourism.
“We picked up a lot of cognitive skills, and learnt about everything -- birds, reptiles and mammals -- during the course of three-and-half months,” said Shekar to PTI.
While historically, people like Charles Darwin are tagged as naturalists, modern-day naturalists would include scientists, park rangers, and nature educators, who contribute to our understanding and conservation of the natural world.
Shekar, for instance, wants to become an ethical tourism professional, designing his own tours across the national parks of India.
He was one of the first batch students of the course being offered by Bengaluru-based The Naturalist School, a social enterprise.
The course is designed to create meaningful career pathways in the growing fields of conservation, nature education, and sustainable tourism, said Prakruthi Subramanya, Program Director at The Naturalist School.
“The naturalists have largely been operating from a very informal space. Usually, they are motivated by a passion for wildlife. Sometimes, local youth living in and around forests would double as naturalists,” said Subramanya.
Shekar recalled how as a young boy, he fell in love with wildlife after watching David Attenborough documentaries and wanted to do something with nature for a living.
“It helped that I was living near Mysuru Zoo, and that my mom, who was from Coorg, was a science teacher. I ended up having this fascination for forests, particularly for the biodiversity of Western Ghats,” said Shekar, who is working as a nature guide at the government-owned Jungle Lodges and Resorts, Kabini, perched at the edge of Nagarhole forest in Karnataka.
It was around 2021-22 that the CNAT Course was accredited by the National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET) and aligned with the Skill India Mission, offering a formal pathway into the growing sectors of conservation education and sustainable tourism.
“Before then, Skill India Mission had many courses for chefs and housekeeping, but none for nature guide and nature interpretation,” added Subramanya.
The third batch of the course will begin their three-and-half month (750-hour) long journey into being a naturalist from July 19 at Bannerghatta Nature Camp, Jungle Lodges and Resorts in Bengaluru.
The course, with a fee of Rs 1.5 lakh, is based on experiential learning, said Subramanya.
“Among other things, they will also learn how to communicate to a layperson. Much of it is pegged on building curiosity and storytelling. We have also collaborated with the Red Cross to give them a detailed first-aid course,” said Subramanya.
The students will stay at Bannerghatta Nature Camp for four weeks initially and then again two weeks towards the end of the course.
“They are expected to attend online classes for four weeks, working on assigned projects. There will also be on-the-job training – they will intern in one of the nature camps,” added Subramanya.
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Iran reimposes restrictions on Strait of Hormuz, accusing US of violating deal to reopen it
Cairo (AP): Iran swiftly reversed course on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, reimposing restrictions on the critical waterway on Saturday after the US said it would not end its blockade of Iran-linked shipping.
Iran's joint military command said on Saturday that “control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state ... under strict management and control of the armed forces.” It warned that it would continue to block transit through the strait as long as the US blockade of Iranian ports remained in effect.
The announcement came the morning after US President Donald Trump said that even after Iran announced the strait's reopening on Friday, the American blockade “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the US, including on its nuclear programme.
The conflict over the chokepoint threatened to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy after oil prices began to fall again on Friday on hopes the US and Iran were drawing closer to an agreement. Roughly one-fifth of the world's oil passes through the strait, and further limits would squeeze already constrained supply, driving prices higher once again.
Control over the strait has proven to be one of Iran's main points of leverage and prompted the United States to deploy forces and initiate a blockade on Iranian ports as part of an effort to force Iran to accept a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire to end almost seven weeks of war that has raged between Israel, the US and Iran.
Iran said it fully reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial vessels after a 10-day truce was announced between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. But after Trump said the blockade would continue, top Iranian officials said his announcement violated last week's ceasefire agreement between Iran and the US and warned the strait would not stay open if the US blockade remained in effect.
A data firm, Kpler, said movement through the strait remained confined to corridors requiring Iran's approval.
US forces have sent 21 ships back to Iran since the blockade began on Monday, US Central Command said on X.
Truce in Lebanon could help US-Iran peace efforts
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The ceasefire in Lebanon could clear one major obstacle to an agreement. But it was unclear to what extent Hezbollah would abide by a deal it did not play a role in negotiating, and which will leave Israeli troops occupying a stretch of southern Lebanon.
Trump said in another post that Israel is “prohibited” by the US from further strikes on Lebanon and that “enough is enough” in the Israel-Hezbollah war.
The State Department said the prohibition applies only to offensive attacks and not to actions taken in self-defence.
Shortly before Trump's post, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel agreed to the ceasefire in Lebanon “at the request of my friend President Trump,” but that the campaign against Hezbollah is not complete.
He claimed Israel had destroyed about 90 per cent of Hezbollah's missile and rocket stockpiles and added that Israeli forces “have not finished yet” with the dismantling of the group.
In Beirut, displaced families began moving toward southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs despite warnings by officials not to return to their homes until it became clear whether the ceasefire would hold.
The Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon reported sporadic artillery shelling in some parts of southern Lebanon in the hours after the ceasefire took effect.
An end to Israel's war with Hezbollah was a key demand of Iranian negotiators, who previously accused Israel of breaking last week's ceasefire with strikes on Lebanon. Israel had said that the deal did not cover Lebanon.
The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen US service members have also been killed.
