He was running a high temperature and didn’t venture into waterfalls. Instead, he decided to enjoy the view from far away. Suddenly, Navaneeth’s friends screamed at him saying there is a wild elephant behind him. He quickly turned back and saw an elephant standing close to him. The 16-year-old fainted in shock and the elephant pushed him over the ledge and Navaneeth took a free fall of 50 metre and hit a rock. He was severely injured, but within a year, the youngster recovered. This incident made him realise that wildlife was his calling and later he took up wildlife photography.

“I was interested in studying animal behaviour and patterns. Because of my passion, I started working with nature conservationists from all over the country. One day, the National Geographic Society send me an e-mail asking if I am interested to do a specialisation in particular species. I decided to research the behaviour of tigers and submitted the report. Every weekend, I travelled from Chennai to Bandipur Tiger Reserve to document the behaviour of tigers. I was also doing my engineering course at SRM University at that time,” says Navaneeth Krishnan.

The 26-year-old recollects that the elephant attack changed his life completely. “I never had an idea about wildlife and that event changed my mindset and approach towards life.

In the past ten years, I have been attacked by countless animals and there have been so many instances where I believed I got a second chance at life, escaping death at a narrow length. I was attacked by a sloth bear and there is still a huge scar on my shoulder.

Once, I even fell from a treehouse.

Whenever I share my story, people look at me with wonder. Well, my life is way too adventurous,” he chuckles.

In 2016, the National Geographic Society awarded him the title Tiger Psychologist after seeing his report.

“Many people ask me why I chose to study tigers’ behaviour and not elephants’ (because it attacked me). Tiger is the umbrella species of the forest because their conservation also protects many other species. If I document and conserve tiger, I will be conserving other species as well,” the wildlife photographer adds.

Apart from working for the National Geographic Society, he also does camera trapping work for WWF. “At present, I am working on a book titled Canines of India. Also, I wanted to travel and explore more about the wildlife,” he sums up.