9-year-old Indian girl earns global recognition as she bags runner-up prize at Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024

A nine-year-old Indian girl has been selected for the runner-up prize in the illustrious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition by the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London.

Shreyovi Mehta, a fifth grader from Faridabad (Delhi-NCR), captured a stunning image of two peafowls as she was on a morning walk with her parents in the forests of Keoladev National Park in Bharatpur, Rajasthan.

She was named runner-up in the “10 Years and Under” category of the 60th edition of the award. Her photograph is among the nearly 60,000 entries sent from 117 countries and regions.

As she was strolling through the forests, Shreyovi spotted the peahens, after which she took the camera from her father and captured the acclaimed picture.

The breathtaking photo titled "In the Spotlight" shows a pair of peahens, silhouetted under a canopy of trees with a peachy dawn sky at the background, reads the Instagram post.

“My heart is filled with immense joy and gratitude,” she said in an Instagram post. She also expressed her gratitude to her parents, Kahini Ghosh and Shivang Mehta for their support and encouragement. Shreyovi's father is also a photographer.

Shreyovi's next goal is to capture the national animal of India, the tiger as she hopes to give it the same recognition.

"I will continue to practice so that one day even our national animal - the tiger gets the same recognition," she was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Her felicitation ceremony will be held on October 8 at the Natural History Museum where she will receive a medal.

The chair of the judging panel, Kathy Moran, said, “In this selection, you see species diversity, a range of behavior and conservation issues.”

"These images represent the evolution of the competition through the years, from pure natural history to photography that fully embraces representation of the natural world - the beauty and the challenges," he added.

The exhibition of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year will open at the NHM on October 11 and will continue till June 29, 2025.