Nirupa Rao is a botanical illustrator based in Bangalore, India. Her illustrations are inspired by regular field visits into the wild, and are informed by close collaboration with botanists to achieve scientific accuracy.
In 2017 she was named a National Geographic Young Explorer, and received a grant to pursue her work. She has been published in: Harper’s Bazaar India, and named in their list of Indian Women to be Proud of; Chickpea USA; Medicor, a publication of the Karolinksa Institutet, Sweden. In 2018, the book Pillars of Life authored by Divya Mudappa and Shankar Raman and illustrated by Nirupa Rao was published by Nature Conservation Foundation. It is her first formal publication.
