A nine year-old Indian girl has been named the runner-up in the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, conducted by the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London. Shreyovi Mehta, a Class Five student from Faridabad near Delhi, captured a striking image of two peafowl while she was on a morning stroll with her parents in the forests of Keoladev National Park in Bharatpur, Rajasthan.
Shreyovi Mehta was walking through the forests with her parents when she spotted the peahens. She ran back to her father, who was carrying the cameras, then got down on the ground to take the photograph that has now received worldwide acclaim.
The captivating photo, titled “In the Spotlight”, shows a pair of peahens, silhouetted under a canopy of trees.
Mehta was named runner-up in then â10 Years and Underâ category of the 60th edition of the prestigious award in wildlife photography. Her photograph was one of the nearly 60,000 photographs by participants of all ages and experience levels from 117 countries and territories.
Peacock is India’s national bird.
âMy heart is filled with immense joy and gratitude,â Mehta said in an Instagram post as she thanked her parents, Kahini Ghosh and Shivang Mehta. Her father too is a photographer.
She also gave a shout-out to parents who encouraged their girl children to explore their dreams. Mehta’s big goal in wildlife photography for India’s national animal, tiger, to get be recognised on a platform as big as the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
“I will continue to practice so that one day even our national animal – the tiger gets the same recognition,” Mehta told news agency PTI.
The Class Five student from Faridabad will receive a medal at an award ceremony at the Natural History Museum in London on October 8.
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,” Kathy Moran, chair of the judging panel, said in a statement.
The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition will open at the NHM on October 11 and will run till June 29, 2025.
