Our Team
Vana Safaris is small organization with big dreams! We have a team of intersting persons from different walks of life - handling shared responsibilities with clear roles.
Monika Kapoor Sarkhel
Monika Kapoor Sarkhel is the co-founder of Vana Safaris - which she started with Avijit Sarkhel after having worked in the travel industry since 2000 in different capacities. Monika loves meeting people and sharing stories with them. She is an accomplished chef who also runs two independent food platforms – Miraimaia (working with foraged food & lost recipies) and Miraimaia’s Micro-creamery (working with cheese). Monika helps Vana Safaris – ensures that the logistics is smooth & secured (end to end).
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When not busy with Vana Safaris – she enjoys her self-explorations across India and particularly the western Himalayas.
Founder | Operations Director | Experience Designer 
Avijit Sarkhel
Avijit Sarkhel joined the travel industry as naturalist in 1997. He started in Orissa &then worked in Kanha Tiger Reserve & Darjeeling hills before moving to New Delhi - where he worked from 2003 till 2016 with various national & international travel companies – before starting Vana Safaris with Monika.
Avijit is the lead trip designer, an accomplished tour leader & photographer. One of his passions is the wildl cats of he subcontinent. He is one of the few persons in the world to have sighted 15 wild cats of India – that includes 4 big cats and 11 rare and elusive small cats. He loves to design itineraries that allow his clients to achieve this feat now. He loves birding & particularly enjoys mammal-watching, He enjoys his time in nature to understand the role of the various species & their inter-dependency.
When not busy with Vana Safaris – he enjoys her self-explorations with like-minded persons, reading and sketching.
Founder | Sales Director | Guide
Programs Head | Curator | GuideShagufta Siddhi
Shagufta Siddhi is a cultural curator and storyteller who has been designing immersive experiences for intellectually curious travelers. Her work brings together heritage, communities, & lived narratives, with a focus on depth, context, and meaningful engagement.
She brings with her years of experience of guiding & designing slow-paced journeys across Asia and will be helping Vana Safaris move forward with our outbound tours in Asia & immersive cultural tours in India.
She is also a curator at the Tribal Freedom Fighters Museum in Wayanad, Kerala, where she foregrounds lesser-known histories from India’s tribal communities. In southern Gujarat, she has established a crafts centre that trains tribal women in block printing and surface embellishment, supporting skill-building and sustainable livelihoods.
Operations Manager | GuideNehal Gurung
Nehal Gurung – is a trained naturalist & a keen observer of nature. He leads wildlife tours & looks into the day to day operations in Vana Safaris. With a background in ecology and evolutionary biology, he has a strong foundation in the study of animals and the natural world. Over the years, he has travelled through many of India’s national parks and wildlife reserves, developing a familiarity with the diverse landscapes and ecosystems that make up the country’s wildlife.
His interests tightly revolve around wildlife, particularly animal behavior, evolution and natural history. He is in his elements when learning something new — whether it comes from a research paper, a conversation, or something unexpected seen on a safari.”