Ganesh Nayak: Bridging Adventure and Environmental Education in Manipal

Ganesh Nayak is a hard man to get ahold of. Between his role as an assistant professor at Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), founding an environmental education program, and adventuring around the world on his trusty bicycle, he can be difficult to pin down. Fortunately, I managed to secure some time with him after he received EPI’s Alumni Leadership Award in February 2025.

As a child, most adults in Ganesh’s life expected him to follow one of two career paths: medicine or engineering. He began his professional life as a computer chip designer, but soon grew disenchanted and wondered what else the world had to offer. This curiosity ultimately led him to develop a passion for bicycle travel.

After many trips across different regions, Ganesh brought his love of cycling back to his alma mater, founding the Centre for Outdoor Studies at MIT. What began in 2015 as a small group running a few expeditions each year became a formally established institution in 2022, and has since expanded to integrate ecology into its adventure-based education model.

 Centre for Outdoor Studies' first high altitude tour in the Indian Himalayas in 2023

Located in Ganesh’s hometown of Manipal, the Centre is home to a diverse array of wildlife, including birds, amphibians, and reptiles. While the campus’ forested areas provide quality habitat for these species, the broader landscape faces increasing pressure from apartment complexes, commercial buildings, and offices as Manipal’s human population grows.

Recognizing both this environmental threat and the need to offer accessible outdoor experiences to MIT students, Ganesh and third-year engineering student Tejas Rao developed a program for participant-led scientific surveys of the Centre. This initiative allows students who might not be able to join the Centre’s multi-day bike tours to cultivate environmental stewardship and leadership skills while balancing other responsibilities.

EPI’s Alumni Leadership Award is helping get these scientific surveys off the ground, and the first session was a resounding success! In July, Tejas Rao 26 MIT students and faculty on a 1.8 km walk through the Centre, identifying 37 different bird species in just two hours.

Even more exciting, some participants are already eager to lead new surveys on campus. The current project will produce a field guide, a billboard and a mural across the Centre, but for Ganesh the real goal goes further. He hopes more students will follow in Tejas’s footsteps, sharpening their naturalist skills, sharing what they learn and inspiring others to notice the living world around them. In doing so, they will build their own confidence while sparking a campus-wide appreciation for nature among MIT’s 10,000 students.

The energy and enthusiasm Ganesh brings to his work in Manipal make us proud to call him an EPI alumnus. His time in Baja California Sur with EPI’s Teacher Fellowship program showed him what a vibrant community of people working together for their local ecosystem can achieve, and it is clear that he is applying the lessons from his experience in Mexico to his hometown on the other side of the world.

We eagerly anticipate the results of the next series of student-led surveys and the educational materials that follow, and we hope Ganesh’s work inspires even more MIT students to explore the wild side of Manipal.