Nachiket Kelkar is an ecologist with a Ph.D. in socio-environmental history of resource conflicts in riverine fisheries, and a M.Sc. in Wildlife Biology and Conservation. 

He heads the Riverine Ecosystems and Livelihoods (REAL) programme at the Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT), is an Adjunct Scientist with FERAL and Assistant Professor at Trans-Disciplinary University, Bengaluru, as well as a Member of the IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group. He is also a Member of the State Board for Wildlife and multiple advisory committees to the Department of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change, Government of Bihar. 

Nachiket is keenly interested in developing interdisciplinary and long-term understanding of the ecological and socio-political processes that affect biodiversity conservation and human livelihood security in riverine and wetland ecosystems. His research and conservation work on Ganges river dolphins, riverine biodiversity, and capture fisheries in the Gangetic plains began in 2006-07, which led to the development of a nearly two-decade long scientific monitoring programme on riverscapes of the Gangetic floodplains.