2021 Science Without Borders® Challenge Finalists: 11-14 year old students
The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation is pleased to announce the finalists in our 2021 Science Without Borders® Challenge! This international student art contest engages students in important ocean issues through art. For this year’s competition, students were asked to illustrate one or more of the benefits mangroves provide to people, other organisms, or the environment.
Entries to the Science Without Borders® Challenge are judged in two categories based on age. Here are the finalists selected from the younger group of applicants, students 11-14 years old:
"Deity of the Mangroves" by Tarini Malhotra, Age 14, India
Artist's Statement: From rising sea levels to cyclones to human apathy, the Sundarbans and its inhabitants are facing numerous challenges. The biodiversity hotbed’s famous resident, the majestic Royal Bengal Tiger is also finding it difficult to survive. When all else fails, Sundarbans’ residents remember Bon Bibi, Deity of the Sundarbans, the prime protector of all. As dark clouds representing human excesses threaten the world, Bon Bibi selflessly sucks up the smoke, purifying air and sustaining the circle of life. The Goddess’s rainbow coloured hair represents mangroves’ multitude of benefits including carbon storage, oxygen production, coastal protection, food, ecosystem connectivity, breeding & nursery grounds and livelihood. The fine, backwardly balanced stance of the Goddess represents the delicate harmony created by mangroves between nature and human evolution. The sun, nestled within the harmony pattern created by the mangrove, brings succour to all life revelling in the sacred sanctuary created across air, land and water.
