Home/News/For the Sri Lankan Elephant : A photography competition focusing the world's lens on the urgent need to protect Sri Lanka's elephants before it is too late
Jul 09, 2021

For the Sri Lankan Elephant : A photography competition focusing the world's lens on the urgent need to protect Sri Lanka's elephants before it is too late

For the Sri Lankan Elephant : A photography competition focusing the world's lens on the urgent need to protect Sri Lanka's elephants before it is too late
Classified Endangered (EN) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, The Sri Lankan Elephant (Elephant maximus maximus) is an iconic species in urgent need of conservation. 
 
Sri Lanka is ranked as the country which has the highest human-elephant conflict (HEC) in the world. Deforestation, unplanned development, and encroachment into wildlife habitats have led to a steep rise in HEC incidents and approximately 100 people and 300 elephants lose their lives annually - an alarming trend that is set to continue this year too. In the last 10 years alone over 2953 elephants have lost their lives to the HEC, highlighting the gravity of this conservation challenge. 
 
WNPS Human Elephant CoExistence Subcommittee works exclusively on initiatives to help mitigate the HEC and to protect Sri Lanka's elephants for our future generations.
 
To celebrate World Elephant Day on 12 August 2021 and to celebrate this majestic species we are privileged to share our land with, the Human-Elephant Co-existence Subcommittee of the WNPS will be running a photography competition from 10 July - 5 August 2021.
 

Titled 'For the Sri Lankan Elephant', the competition will focus on celebrating this unique species while highlighting the ongoing challenges of the human-elephant conflict through the below entry categories:

1.    The Elephant : Open Category

2.    Human-Elephant Conflict : Open Category

3.    The Elephant : Junior Category (under 15 years of age)

 
If you would like to participate in this competition please submit your entries via the online form by 5 August 2021.

The form is available at https://forms.gle/C7DVV1oEXpuq3RLs6

The terms and conditions of the competition are below.

1) Submissions will close at midday on 5th August 2021.
2) Submissions will not be accepted once the deadline lapses.
3) Entries will not be accepted unless submitted via this form. Entries not submitted through the proper channel will not be included in the competition.
4) One winner will be selected from each category and the winners will be announced on the 12th August. 2021.
5) The winner will be notified via email to the address specified on the submission form. If no response is received after 3 business days, a new winner will be selected and the previous winner will forfeit all rights to the prize.
6) The copyrights to images will remain with the photographer.
7) The photographer grants the WNPS permission to use their images in WNPS' articles, websites and social media with the photographer being credited.
8) By entering this competition, each photographer declares that all images submitted by them were captured by the photographer and the copyright belongs to the photographer.
9) The decision of the judges is final. The WNPS reserves the right to disqualify any entry that is deemed inappropriate or does not conform to these Terms and Conditions.
10) If the judges feel that the subject has been harassed or manipulated, the image will be disqualified.
11) All photographs submitted to this competition must be taken in Sri Lanka.
Images of domesticated elephants will not be accepted.
12) Each photographer will be allowed to submit a maximum of 5 images.
13) The photograph must be in its original state and cannot be altered in any way, including but not limited, to removing, adding, reversing, or distorting subjects within the frame. The original unprocessed image (RAW file) may be requested by the judges.
14) Digital files must be submitted as JPEGs, saved at a high-quality setting of at least 8 in Photoshop, Adobe RGB (1998), and at 1920 pixels along the longest dimension. No borders, watermarks or signatures should be included.
15) Digital adjustments including tone and contrast, burning, dodging, cropping, sharpening, noise reduction, minor cleaning work (e.g. removal of sensor dust or scratches on transparencies/scans, removal of chromatic aberration), HDR, stitched panoramas, focus stacking are permitted providing that they comply with the competition’s principles of authenticity – a true representation of nature - so that they do not deceive the viewer or misrepresent the reality of nature, or what was originally captured by the camera.
16) The following digital adjustments (but not limited to these) are not allowed: adding, moving or removing objects, animals or parts of animals, plants, people etc; the removal of dirt, highlights, backscatter, bubbles, debris and similar; composites, painting the foreground / painting out the background.