Winner
Steve Winter
Freelance
"Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India"
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Each year, the monsoon swells the Brahmaputra River, inundating the park and shifting the river’s course. These floods sculpt the landscape, encouraging either the growth of the grasslands that feed the rhinos, elephants, Asiatic buffalo and other hoofed animals—or encouraging the growth of forestland.
This is the last stronghold for Indian one-horned rhinos—and without the grasslands, they can’t survive. So just before the monsoons each year, park guards burn the tall grasses to kill off any young sapling tress—and to ensure the grasslands regrowth when the rains subside.
Here, a herd of elephants huddle in a beel, or lake, as nearby grasses burn.
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