Founders
Jayanthi Kallam
Jayanthi Kallam is the Executive Director of ARRC. She also serves as a board member of the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council (IWRC). She holds a Masters in Business Administration from New York University (NYU). She worked in various MNCs in the U.S. for 12 years before quitting her corporate job to pursue her interests in conservation.
She worked as a full time wildlife rehabilitator in the US for 3 years before deciding to move to India in 2015 to serve her home country. She has done courses on ornithology and ecology from Cornell University and Harvard University, USA. She is the only Certified Wildlife Rehabilitator (CWR) in India, a certification offered by the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council to highly qualified wildlife rehabilitators all across the world.
Jayanthi Kallam also studied veterinary technology and worked at various wildlife rehabilitation organizations and veterinary practices. She is a member of several US and international wildlife rehabilitation organizations. She has participated and presented at several Wildlife Rehabilitation conferences in the US. She co-founded ARRT and ReACT, non-governmental organisations dedicated to the causes of wildlife and the environment. She is regularly invited to speak and conduct training workshops for various organisations throughout India.
Saleem hameed
Saleem Hameed is well known in Bangalore’s wildlife circles. He has been doing Wildlife Rehabilitation in Bengaluru for the past 25 years. He has received several prestigious awards such as the David Shepherd Award from Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and Nature Forever Society’s Sparrow award.
Apart from being a dedicated rehabilitator, he is an established wildlife photographer, exceptional nature illustrator and environmentalist who has done tremendous work to restore natural order and nurture native species of plants and trees.
Saleem who was an advertising photographer recognized the need for wildlife rehabilitation centres in urban areas that were growing in an unprecedented manner and causing irreparable damage to the fragile ecosystems. He helped set up the first wildlife rehabilitation centre in Bangalore called ‘Save our Wild Life (SoWL)’, run by People for Animals and then the ‘Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre’ (WRRC) at Bannerghatta run by Compassion Unlimited Plus Action. This had a very positive effect, as it inspired the youth in Bengaluru to take up careers in the fields of ecology or wildlife, but more than that, it created awareness among many Bengalureans to treasure and cherish the urban wildlife found in their own backyards.
trustees and advisory board
ARRC’s Board of Trustees and Advisories is comprised of accomplished individuals with a wide variety of skills and experience from managerial, financial, technical, animal welfare and veterinary backgrounds.
Vishnu Balusu
Vishnu works as Managing Director at JP Morgan Chase, Bangalore,. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), USA. After working in the UK and USA for 18 years, he has relocated to India to support ARRC’s mission. Vishnu is a licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator by the NYSDEC – USA (New York State Department of Environmental Conservation). He has worked with multiple animal care organizations in the US. At ARRC, Vishnu brings his expertise to infrastructure building and technical resource development.
Praveen Kallam
Praveen completed his Bachelors in Electronics from IIT, Chennai and Masters in Electrical Engineering from TAMU in Texas, USA. He has managed multiple teams in the US, Europe and India to design and manufacture various electronic devices from Cellphones to IoT. From a young age and throughout his engineering career, he has been passionate about environmental conservation.
Since 2016 he has been focussing on ARRC operations, he currently manages the ARRC Recuperation Centre. He brings his detail oriented and meticulous planning to setting long-term strategy and sustainability of the organization.
Shailendra Chitre
Shailendra completed his Bachelors in Electronics Engineering from University of Mumbai. He specializes in Data warehousing and Big Data products and solutions. He spent 19+ years in the US architecting and deploying data warehousing solutions for different clients across multiple industry sectors. He presently works as a Vice President at Morgan Stanley, India where he is the Asia Lead for Big Data products and the co-chair of the Environment and Social Finance Committee. In his spare time, he supports ARRC data management systems and provides other technology support to the operations.
Sudha Narayanan
Sudha has been working with domestic and wild animals for the last 23 years having been a Trustee with CUPA – Compassion Unlimited Plus Action for the last 17 years as well as a former founder Trustee of WRRC (Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre). Sudha is the founder of CARE (Charlie’s Animal Rescue), a well-known and respected domestic animal rescue organization operating in Bangalore.
Dr. Lohitha H.D.
Dr Lohitha is a well known veterinarian in Bengaluru, both in the domestic pet community and as well as in the wildlife enthusiast community In addition to being a member of the board at ARRC, he is also on the board of other rescue organizations such as CARE. He has extensive surgical training and experience in a variety of domestic and exotic species.
Team
RoleS
1 – Veterinarian
1 – Outreach coordinator
1 – Rescue coordinator
2 – Wildlife Rehabilitators
2 – Animal Care Managers
3 – Animal Rescuers
5 – Animal Caretakers
5 – Maintenance Staff
our growth
Established in January 2016, Avian and Reptile Rehabilitation Centre (ARRC) rescues, rehabilitates and releases injured, orphaned, diseased and debilitated urban wild birds, reptiles and small mammals from the North and East regions of Bengaluru.
ARRC has been steadily growing since inception and until fiscal year 2021-22, we rescued and rehabilitated more than 18000 animals of over 148 species and the number keeps growing every year.
