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By Nell Lewis, CNN
3 minute read
Updated 5:02 AM EDT, Fri July 26, 2024
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The Mangrove Photography Awards is an annual competition celebrating the beauty and significance of mangrove ecosystems around the world. Photographer Supratim Bhattacharjee won the overall prize this year, with an image of a girl standing before her tea shop, which has been destroyed by a cyclone and flooding in Frazerganj, Sundarbans, India, home to the largest mangrove forest in the world.
The award selected winners in six categories, including one dedicated to mangroves and people. Johannes Panji Christo won this with an image of a Balinese man covered in mud from a mangrove forest during a bathing purification tradition, known as Mebuug Buugan.
Olivier Clement’s photograph “Guardians of the Mangroves” won first place in the mangroves and underwater category. It depicts a turtle navigating the mangroves, as a reminder of the vital role these ecosystems play in sustaining marine biodiversity.
4- A turquoise water channel lined by mangrove trees meanders through the Al Dhafra region of the United Arab Emirates. “Nature’s Ribbon” was photographed by Ammar Alsayed Ahmed and won the mangroves and landscapes category.
Nicholas Alexander Hess was awarded the Young Mangrove Photographer of the Year prize for his multiple exposure image of a young saltwater crocodile captured at low tide in the mangroves. “I used the multiple exposure mode in my camera to superimpose layers onto my image of the croc's eye to capture more of the scene without sacrificing detail of the eye,” he said in a press release.
A villager stands in his half-submerged home during a flood in the Sundarbans, West Bengal. The photograph by Dipayan Bose won the mangroves and threats category.
Restoration scientist and photographer Mark Cook captured this image of a bottlenose dolphin grabbing a mullet from the air during “mud-ring feeding,” a fishing behavior exhibited by dolphins living in the mangrove-lined bays of Florida Bay and the Caribbean. The photograph came first in the mangroves and wildlife category.
Giacomo d'Orlando’s portfolio “Symbiosis” won the mangroves and conservation stories category, depicting life in Demak Regency, Indonesia, one of the most vulnerable places to climate change.
Through a series of photographs, d’Orlando shows how both climate change and human induced activities are threatening coastal communities.
Runner up in the mangroves and wildlife category, Jayanta Guha’s photograph, “Mudskipper in Aurora,” depicts the peculiar species of fish which is found in mangroves and mudflats.
Upamanyu Chakraborty photographs a Northern River terrapin before release as part of a conservation breeding program in the Sundarbans, India. The photograph was runner-up in the mangroves and people category.
Purwanto Nugroho’s photograph “Kakaban Mangrove” shows how colorful underwater mangrove habitats can be. It was highly commended in the mangroves and underwater category.
Mangrove Photography Awards 2024: Images show the world’s disappearing mangrove forests
Editor’s Note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions.Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiativehas partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action.
CNN —
A photograph of a young girl in a checked green dress against the backdrop of a churned-up sea filled with debris is the winner of the 2024 Mangrove Photography Awards.
Taken by Indian photographer Supratim Bhattacharjee, it shows the aftermath of a cyclone in the Sundarbans, a huge mangrove forest that lies at the delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers on the Bay of Bengal.
Extreme weather is becoming more frequent in the region, leading to the destruction of homes and businesses, and the mass displacement of people.
In this case, the girl’s tea house was destroyed in the storm. “We see the girl’s life turn upside down … her look of helplessness reflecting the turmoil of life for many people on the southern coast of the Sundarbans in India,” Leo Thom, founder of the Mangrove Photography Awards and creative director of Mangrove Action Project, told CNN.
“As sea levels rise and storms breach the protective embankments, their land becomes inundated with saltwater from the sea, making it impossible to grow crops for years to come,” he added.
Mangrove trees on the banks of a water channel in Al Dhafra, United Arab Emirates.
In its tenth year, the photography awards are intended to drive awareness of the beauty and fragility of mangrove forests like the Sundarbans and highlight the urgent need for their protection.
Found in 123 countries, the unique ecosystems are key in the fight against climate change, acting as a giant carbon store. They also serve as a natural barrier against flooding, and provide a habitat to threatened animal species like tigers and jaguars.
“Known as the ‘roots of the sea,’ our coastal forests are crucial for the survival of millions of coastal communities, providing protection from the extremes of nature and acting as nurseries for fish and marine life,” said Thom.
Yet despite this, they are also one of the world’s most threatened ecosystems. According to a recent report from the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems, more than half of global mangroves are at risk of collapse by 2050.
The awards, which received more than 2,500 entries from 74 nations, selected winners in six categories, including one dedicated to mangrove threats. This category’s winning image, taken by Dipayan Bose in India, shows a man standing in his flooded home; other commended images depict urban development encroaching on mangrove forests, and pollution ranging from fishing nets to toxic chemicals.
A multiple exposure photograph of a saltwater crocodile's eye in a mangrove forest in Australia.
Other categories celebrate the beauty of mangroves, with stunning aerial images of mangrove forests lining turquoise channels, and shots of amazing wildlife that lives within these ecosystems. A “young mangrove photographer of the year” title was awarded to Australia’s Nicholas Alexander Hess, for his intense multiple exposure photograph of a saltwater crocodile’s eye peering out of a mangrove forest at low tide.
“Captured at night, the image gives off a slightly unsettling feeling, such as what one may experience in a mangrove, unknowing of what predators may be lurking nearby, hidden by the dense network of the mangrove,” said Hess in a press release.
The awards’ organizers believe that the wide variety of images from all corners of the world can help to raise awareness of the ecological role mangroves play and catalyze their protection.
“We hope the photography awards can help connect people to mangrove forests and their conservation, by exciting them about the diversity of life found within them,” said Thom. “We want to see existing healthy mangroves protected and improve restoration of our lost forests.”
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