It’s called ‘The Alley Cat’, the photograph that won Mumbai-based conservationalist Nayan khanolkar BBC’s best wildlife photographer of the year award.
Khanolkar has been documenting India’s wildlife for over a decade now and works as a Research Fellow with the Bombay Natural History Society, along with being a bilogy teacher. His current focus is on the big cats prowling in urban areas, in a bid to raise more awareness about conserving them.
The photograph, clicked in Mumbai’s Aarey Milk colony, won the accolade in the Urban wildlife category.
“With growing human-leopard conflict grabbing the headlines, Nayan was determined to show things could be different. Positioning his camera trap so a passing cat would not dominate the frame, the wait began. After four months, he finally captured this unique human-leopard co-existence as this big cat weaves its way silently through the alley,” Khanolkar’s website reads.
Here are some of his other photographs:
