Haunting portrait of young storm victim wins photo award
Supratim Bhattacharjee has been named the overall winner of this year’s Mangrove Photography Awards for his photograph of a young girl in the aftermath of a devastating storm in Frazerganj, Sundarbans, India.
Organized by the Mangrove Action Project, the competition—now in its 10th year—aims to highlight the relationships between wildlife, coastal communities, and mangrove forests, as well as the fragility of these unique ecosystems both above and below the waterline.
Mr. Bhattacharjee’s winning image, titled Sinking Sundarbans, captures Pallavi standing in front of her home and tea shop, both destroyed by the sea during a storm.
“I observed her strong face and calm nature during that devastating period,” Mr. Bhattacharjee remarked. “Children are the ones that suffer the most.”
Located in the Bay of Bengal, the Sundarbans is the largest mangrove forest in the world.
“[The winning] image raises a thousand questions, while connecting you to the girl’s heart,” said competition judge Dhritiman Mukherjee. “Her vulnerability exposes the full impact of climate change and sea level rise experienced by many coastal communities.”
Mangroves are an important protection against climate change, with one acre (4,000sq 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.
“Conservation as a story, is a complicated one,” said another of the judges, Morgan Heim.
“Photography has the ability to help us receive and feel close to those stories no matter our language. Every time I look at this kind of photography, I think, there’s still hope.”
Fellow judge Christian Ziegler added: “[In the competition] were many fascinating stories about life in the mangroves, ranging from scientific insights to restoration of the ecosystem and the difficult conditions people face.”
Here are a selection of winning images from seven competition categories, with descriptions by the photographers.
Men, women and children, wearing sarongs and traditional headgear, collect mud from a mangrove forest in Kedonganan village, just outside the town of Denpasar in Bali, Indonesia.
They cover themselves as part of a purification ritual called Mebuug Buugan, where people pray for gratitude and earth’s fertility.
The Sundarbans archipelago spans the borders of India and Bangladesh… [and] is known for its rich forest resources, which locals rely on for income.
But rampant deforestation coupled with worsening storms has intensified food and water scarcity, diminished agriculture productivity and soil quality, and turned local communities into climate refugees.
