At 14, Krittika Mukherjee has earned a place in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition after her photograph was selected from more than 65,000 entries worldwide.

For 14-year-old Krittika Mukherjee, wildlife photography did not begin with a trip to a distant forest or a rare encounter with an exotic animal. It began much closer to home, in a small garden beside her house in Singur, West Bengal, where birds, insects and everyday moments in nature gradually became subjects worth stopping to observe.

Krittika, a Class IX student of Singur Golap Mohini Mallick Girls’ High School, has now taken that habit of looking closely much further. Her photograph, Home Comforts, has been recognised in the 11-14 Years category of the 62nd Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, organised by London’s Natural History Museum. Her image is among the 100 photographs selected for this year’s exhibition from 65,403 entries submitted from 121 countries and territories.

The recognition was announced in London on October 13, with the exhibition opening at the Natural History Museum on October 16. The museum describes Wildlife Photographer of the Year as an internationally acclaimed exhibition featuring 100 selected images from the competition.

It Started Just Outside Her Home

Krittika first picked up a camera when she was nine, while studying in Class III. Photography was already familiar in her household. Her father, Kallol Mukherjee, is a wildlife photographer, and her elder sister is also an award-winning photographer. Growing up around cameras and conversations about wildlife gave Krittika an early introduction to the craft, but her recognition is also a result of the attention she developed for the natural world around her.

That beginning matters because her story is not built around travelling to extraordinary places in search of extraordinary photographs. She found subjects close to home. A garden, birds, insects and the small movements of nature became enough to make her stop, observe and photograph.

Her achievement also carries a particular connection to Singur, a place widely known in Bengal for its political history surrounding farmland and the proposed Tata Motors Nano project. Krittika's camera is now drawing attention to a different side of the place, one rooted in its everyday natural surroundings.

A Photograph Finds Its Way to London

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is now in its 62nd year and has developed into a major international platform for nature photography. The competition evaluates photographs for qualities including originality, creativity, technical ability and ethical approach. The selected images also offer different ways of looking at wildlife and the pressures affecting natural habitats.

For Krittika, Home Comforts has carried a view from Singur into that international gallery. She is reported to be the first Bengali photographer recognised in the competition's junior categories and the only Indian honoured across the three young photographer age groups this year.

The scale of the selection becomes clearer when placed alongside the number of entries. More than 65,000 photographs were submitted from across the world, while only 100 were chosen for the exhibition. For a 14-year-old photographer still in school, that makes the recognition a significant milestone in a journey that began only a few years ago.

She Wants Other Children to Look Closer

Krittika has said that she hopes her achievement encourages other school students to spend time exploring nature and thinking about their role in protecting India's natural heritage. Her message is simple: extraordinary things do not always require an extraordinary journey. Sometimes, they are already present outside the place where we live.

That idea perhaps explains what makes her story particularly fitting for a wildlife photography competition. A photograph begins with seeing, but meaningful observation requires something more than simply having a camera. It requires patience, curiosity and the willingness to notice what might otherwise remain part of the background.

Krittika's journey from a garden in Singur to an international wildlife photography exhibition does not suggest that distance is necessary to find something worth documenting. Instead, it shows what can happen when a young person learns to pay attention to the world immediately around her.

And for now, that world still begins at home.

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