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Winners: Show Us Your India: Biodiversity Photography Contest

02 October 2026

Caption: Two leopards (Panthera pardus) cross a road in a tiger reserve in Maharashtra, in a striking scene of human infrastructure intersecting with a critical wildlife corridor and a reminder of the need to protect habitats across fragmented landscapes. Location: Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra

Photo: © Photographer: Ananya Vinod, Age 12

We’re delighted to announce the winners of the contest

Caption: A flock of Greater flamingos form striking patterns across brackish waters of Pulicat lake. Every winter, thousands of flamingos migrate from central Asia and Siberia to India's second largest brackish water lagoon. Location: Pulicat Lake, Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu border

Photo: © Photographer: Ashwin Kashi Vishwanath

Caption: The Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher (Ceyx erithaca ), a skilled hunter with lightning-fast reflexes and a powerful bill, on a successful skink hunt. Location: Kalhe Village, Karnala Wildlife Sanctuary, Maharashtra

Photo: © Photographer: Vikas Yadav

Caption: Farmers work together in the water, gathering and bundling freshly harvested jute. Their collective labour reveals the human dimension of a traditional agricultural practice deeply rooted in the rural landscape of West Bengal. Location: Nilgunj, West Bengal

Photo: © Photographer: Rajesh Dhar

Caption: Hundreds of thousands of Olive Ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea ) take over the beaches of Rushikulya in coastal Odisha to lay eggs in February. “The mass nesting of Olive Ridley Sea Turtles is a nocturnal phenomenon but in 2025 it happened in the day time too and I was lucky enough to witness it,” the photographer shares. Location: Rushikulya, Odisha

Photo: © Photographer: Arghya Adhikary

The five photographs above are the selected entries from the first Show Us Your India photography contest, held on the theme of biodiversity. The winning images have also been showcased across our social media platforms, including X, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

The month-long contest, led by the UN Information Centre New Delhi, invited photographers from India and around the world to capture the variety of life found in India. More than 600 entries were received.

Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth, from animals and plants to the ecosystems they are part of. It supports the food, water and natural resources that people depend on. Protecting biodiversity is central to Sustainable Development Goals 14 and 15, Life Below Water and Life on Land. In October 2026, countries will meet in Yerevan, Armenia, for CBD COP17, the 17th meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity. It will be held in conjunction with the twelfth meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CP-MOP-12) and the sixth meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing (NP-MOP-6). COP 17 will mark the first global review of collective progress towards the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF).

Thank you to everyone who took part and shared a photograph with us.

Written by

Chandramouli Guha

UNIC

National Information Officer, UN Information Centre for India and Bhutan, Department of Global Communications (DGC)

chandramouli.guha@un.org

UN entities involved in this initiative

UNIC

United Nations Information Centre

Goals we are supporting through this initiative