Thanks for shooting a tree….and the winners are…

To mark World Environment Day on June 5, Pratham Books announced the ‘Shoot a Tree’ Contest and we were delighted to get 114 amazing photographs. You may have seen the pictures on our photostream on Flickr.com too and we know you may have your own favourites there!

Nine-year old Ruhee of Ahmedabad who sent a picture captioned “Our world …..our dream….a green tomorrow!” captures the joy that engulfs us when we are close to nature. Ruhee, a copy of ‘A King Cobra’s Summer’ is on the way to you!

We requested author Janaki Lenin and illustrator Maya Ramaswamy, wildlife experts both, to pick five winners. They will each get a copy of ‘A King Cobra’s Summer’. And here are the five photographs that they picked:

Tree of Life by Vipin C, who says, “A tree simply represents the spread of life on this wonderful world. Let us not destroy the growth of life by destroying a tree which can symbolize life in a simple way.”

Anuradha Shankar’s photograph, of which she says, “Its green and not just growing.. it’s also helping something else grow … two little bugs live on the leaf…” We noticed an ant there too, Anuradha!

Happiness Within by Neelam Chandra. “Amazing picture and a caption that touches the viewer immediately,” says Maya Ramaswamy.

Jui Kulkarni’s woody creeper had us all amazed. How old this liana must be, and how many lives it must have supported and still support!

Hide and Seek Toad, by Sowmya Srinivasan, the slightly out-of-focus photograph which inspired her to write this poem:

I hide behind my camera
To capture you,
Through curious lenses!
While you seek sustenance
We “eek” at your existence!
No one is more aware
That You and I are but the same,
Living and Natural!

“Trees are Earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heaven!” wrote 11-year old Kehkashan Basu.

And Vidhi Bansal of Patiala, also aged 11 wrote to say she enjoyed taking pictures for this contest. We enjoyed looking at the photographs of lovely trees, greenery, flowers and fruits. Trees, we think, are nature’s endless effort to speak to us….live and let live, they seem to say.

You can see the entire album of entries here. We’d like to thank all the participants for ‘greening’ our world!