Images showing the destruction faced by people in coastal areas of India due to cyclones have won international photography prizes.
The grand prize for the Mangrove Photography Awards is a picture taken of a girl on the coast of Sundarbans in eastern India. The area was hit by a cyclone in 2021.
The girl’s house was destroyed by waves. The image appears to show her resilience in the face of devastation and wreckage.
The photography award is organized every year by the Mangrove Action Project. The group calls for protecting the mangrove tree, which is important for ecosystems and preventing flooding. This year marks the award’s 10th anniversary. It received over 2,500 applications from around the world.
A photo of two women sitting in a road that was completely submerged due to another cyclone has also won a prize. The area once had rich forests, but deforestation and worsening storms have made it vulnerable to seawater, and hurt its agricultural output.
Many residents in these coastal areas have been forced to flee their homes due to increasingly dangerous storm surges and rising sea levels. The award organizer says the photos show the dire situation for people in coastal areas due to climate change.