Nature inFocus
Nature inFocus is a Bengaluru-based wildlife and conservation media platform that publishes field reporting, photo essays, films and an annual nature photography festival. Founded in 2014 by wildlife photographers Kalyan Varma and Rohit Varma, it began as a festival bringing India's nature community together offline and has grown into one of the country's most prominent voices for wildlife storytelling. Its portal at natureinfocus.in carries articles on wildlife, conservation, eco-travel, communities, nature art, field notes and photography, and it organises the annual Nature inFocus Photography Awards — among the largest wildlife photography competitions in Asia.
Overview
Nature inFocus describes itself as an inclusive and ardent voice for natural-world storytellers and one of the largest communities of wildlife photographers, filmmakers, conservationists and nature-travel enthusiasts in the region. The platform combines a digital editorial portal with offline events: an annual festival in Bengaluru, photography awards, film screenings, exhibitions and talks. Its philosophy is that awareness is the first step toward meaningful change, and it uses visual storytelling — photography and film — to bring people closer to conservation causes.
The founders
Nature inFocus was founded by Kalyan Varma and Rohit Varma, both wildlife photographers. Kalyan Varma, an engineer from Visakhapatnam, left his job more than a decade ago after the wildlife bug bit him and became a wildlife photographer and filmmaker known internationally. Rohit Varma, raised in Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh, moved to Bengaluru in 1997 and worked in corporate organisations before a 2010 trip to Bandipur National Park rekindled his connection with nature; photography became a passion and he went on to study ecology.
The two were introduced during a photography expedition in 2011. They recognised a gap: India had thriving online communities where nature lovers shared photographs, but no physical platform where the community could gather. As Kalyan Varma has put it, no art form can work in isolation, and there was no offline activity for the nature and wildlife community in the whole of Asia. Nature inFocus was created to fill that vacuum.
The festival: origins and growth
Nature inFocus began as a festival. The idea took shape in 2013, when the founders discussed doing something together for the nature and wildlife community, and the first edition of the Nature inFocus Festival was launched in March 2014 in Bengaluru. The festival was conceived as a place where photographers could showcase their work, stay informed on global developments, meet fellow photographers and discuss important topics — bringing together people from different disciplines around nature and wildlife.
The festival has since grown into what has been described as Asia's premier nature and wildlife festival, held annually in Bengaluru. Editions have been staged at venues including Chamara Vajra in the Palace Grounds and the historic Jayamahal Palace. The sixth edition, held over three days in August, featured film screenings — including children's nature films and documentaries — talks on subjects such as technological innovation in wildlife photography, panel discussions on the past, present and future of water in cities, and the screening of the acclaimed documentary Wild Karnataka, narrated by David Attenborough, exploring the wildlife of the southern Indian state. The festival draws photographers, filmmakers, conservationists, researchers and scientists from across the country.
The Nature inFocus Photography Awards
The annual Nature inFocus Photography Awards celebrate photographers who capture extraordinary moments from the natural world while shedding light on urgent conservation issues. The first contest was held in 2014, and the competition has grown into one of Asia's largest wildlife photography contests, drawing entries from around the world.
The awards are announced at the annual festival in Bengaluru. Categories have included Animal Portraits, Animal Behaviour, Conservation Focus, Wildscape and Animals in Their Habitat, Creative Nature Photography, Young Photographer and the Photographer of the Year portfolio award. Winning entries receive international media attention, and shortlisted images are exhibited at the festival — the sixth edition displayed 120 shortlisted wildlife images.
The scale of recent editions illustrates the competition's reach: the 2023 awards drew some 24,000 wildlife images from more than 1,500 photographers worldwide, with filmmaker and conservationist Srikanth Mannepuri named Photographer of the Year for a portfolio on the challenges facing India's coastal mangrove forests; the 2024 competition received a record 14,180 entries from 42 countries, with Supun Dilshan winning the Photographer of the Year portfolio award for a visual story on Sri Lankan elephants; and the 2025 awards attracted nearly 16,000 submissions from over 1,250 photographers across more than 38 countries, with winners announced on 15 November at the festival in Bengaluru. Judging panels have included internationally recognised wildlife photographers such as Andy Rouse and Dhritiman Mukherjee, National Geographic photographer Prasenjeet Yadav, and scientists including Dr. Vidya Athreya of WCS-India, with co-founder Kalyan Varma serving as jury curator.
The editorial portal
Alongside the festival, natureinfocus.in operates as a photo-led editorial platform publishing stories from India's wild spaces and beyond. Its coverage spans wildlife and conservation reporting, eco-travel, community stories, nature art, field notes, photography tips and research. The portal curates and shares information about wild spaces, carrying the work of photographers, filmmakers, researchers and conservationists.
The platform's editorial approach is visual-first: photo essays and field narratives that reveal the diversity of India's natural heritage to a global audience. It also amplifies the efforts of organisations working in wildlife and environmental conservation, connecting their causes to a wider public through storytelling.
Films and production work
Nature inFocus functions not only as a publisher but as a media and production house. Its body of work includes documentaries and films on nature and conservation subjects, extending its storytelling beyond still photography. The festival's film programme — screening short films for children, independent wildlife documentaries and major productions — reflects the organisation's belief in film as a conservation tool, reaching audiences that photography alone might not.
Conservation mission
At its heart, Nature inFocus is a conservation initiative that uses media as its instrument. The founders' premise — that awareness is the first step toward meaningful change — runs through everything the platform does. The photography awards explicitly honour work that highlights conservation issues, from threatened mangrove forests to elephants navigating human-altered landscapes. The festival convenes not only photographers but researchers, conservationists and scientists, creating a space where visual storytelling meets policy discussion.
The platform's coverage of indigenous communities, such as talks on the role of local communities in forest landscapes, and its engagement with urban conservation issues — including panels on water in cities — show a conservation vision that extends beyond protected wilderness to the relationship between people and nature in everyday life.
Community and network
Nature inFocus has built one of the largest communities of nature and wildlife enthusiasts in India, encompassing photographers, filmmakers, conservationists, scientists, researchers and nature travellers. What began as an effort to give India's nature lovers a physical gathering place has become a year-round network connected through the portal, the festival, the awards and social media channels on Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.
The community's growth mirrors the wider rise of wildlife photography in India over the past decade. By providing exhibition space, awards, publishing opportunities and a festival stage, Nature inFocus has helped professionalise and connect a generation of Indian wildlife storytellers, while its international award entries have placed Indian conservation photography on the global map.
Reach and influence
From a single festival launched in March 2014, Nature inFocus has become a fixture of India's conservation calendar, with its awards covered by international media including The Guardian, Gizmodo and Bored Panda. Its winning images — from chimpanzee portraits in Uganda to Arctic wolves on the tundra of Ellesmere Island, flamingos against Dubai's skyline to Pallas's cat kittens on the Mongolian steppe — circulate globally, carrying conservation stories to audiences far beyond the festival halls of Bengaluru.
For a platform founded on the simple observation that India's nature lovers had nowhere to meet, Nature inFocus has achieved something larger: a permanent institution where photography, science and conservation converge, and where the beauty and fragility of the natural world are documented, celebrated and defended.
