Steely gaze of young tigress wins award

Soham Bhattacharyya has been named overall winner of this year's Mangrove Photography Awards, for his image of an endangered tigress in the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve, India, BBC reports.

Run by the Mangrove Action Project, the competition - now in its ninth year - aims to show the relationships between wildlife, coastal communities and mangrove forests, as well as the fragility of these unique ecosystems, both above and below the waterline.

Bhattacharyya's winning image, called The Finest Flower of the Mangroves, shows a young Royal Bengal tigress in its natural mangrove habitat, peering at the photographer.

Mangroves are an important protection against climate change, with one acre (4,000 sq m) of mangrove forest absorbing nearly the same amount of carbon dioxide as an acre of Amazon rainforest.

The forests also protect coastlines from eroding, as intense storms grow more frequent.

Here are some of the winning images -

1) Mangroves & Landscape winner: Emerging Roots, by Cristiano Martins Xavier, Brazil

2) Mangroves & Landscape highly commended: Between Ancient and Modern Lights, by Aaron Ruy G Musa, Philippines

3) Mangroves & Wildlife winner: Hiding in Plain Sight, by Chien Lee, Colombia

4) Mangroves & Conservation Stories winner: The Blue Fig, by Mohammad Rakibul Hasan, Bangladesh

/KN/