June 2026 · Submissions open

Wildlife Photography
Competition

Celebrating the extraordinary biodiversity of Dzüleke through the lens of those who know these forests best.

Submit a Photo

Submissions close at the end of June July.
(Due to weather conditions and accessibility, the close date has been extended to July.)

About the Competition

Each month, the Dzüleke Photo Competition invites photographers — amateur and professional — to share work from the forests, villages, and landscapes around Dzüleke and Khonoma in Nagaland.

Winners in each category are selected by a panel of judges, featured here, and awarded a monthly cash prize. The theme changes from month to month.

Submission Guidelines

Entries that do not meet these criteria will not be accepted.

  1. 01

    Wild subjects only

    All subjects must be photographed in the wild. Captive, zoo, farm, or domestic animals and cultivated plants are not permitted.

  2. 02

    Minimal processing

    Adjustments to exposure, contrast, colour balance, and sharpness are permitted. Compositing, cloning to add or remove subjects, AI-generated content, and HDR beyond natural appearance are not allowed.

  3. 03

    No disturbance

    Wildlife must not have been baited, called, flushed, or otherwise disturbed to obtain the image. Camera trap photographs are permitted — please disclose this in your submission.

  4. 04

    Recent photographs

    Submissions must have been taken within 12 months of the competition month.

  5. 05

    Tell us what you photographed

    A common or local name is fine. Scientific names are welcome but not required.

  6. 06

    Submission limits

    A maximum of one photograph per category per photographer per month, and up to three total submissions per month.

  7. 07

    File requirements

    JPEG, PNG, or WebP format. Minimum 2 megapixels, maximum 10 MB. Preserve EXIF metadata. GPS data helps verify location automatically.

  8. 08

    Original work only

    All photographs must be your own original work. Images copied, downloaded, or otherwise sourced from the internet are prohibited.

Prizes

Each month, cash prizes are awarded to the top three photographs:

1st place
₹1,000
2nd place
₹600
3rd place
₹400

One cash prize per photographer per month. If the same photographer places more than once, they receive the highest prize and the others pass to the next eligible entries. Every winning photograph is still featured and credited here.

Geographic Scope

The competition covers the regions surrounding Dzüleke and Khonoma in the Kohima district of Nagaland. This includes the villages themselves, the community-managed forests, terraced farmlands, wetlands, and surrounding wilderness that these communities have stewarded for generations.

Meet the Judges

Our panel of judges — across disciplines — reviews submissions each month and selects the winning entries.

Mahyar Abdeetedal

Mahyar Abdeetedal

Boston, USA

Mahyar is a Tehran-born robotics scientist based in Boston who began street photography in 2017, capturing the unfiltered moments that reveal the quiet essence of everyday life. See more of his work at https://mahyaret.com/editions/.

Megolhubino Terhüja

Megolhubino Terhüja

Iowa, USA

Megolhubino is a virologist with years of experience in veterinary medicine and animal care, who brings the same patient attention to her parallel practice in art and photography.

Ready to participate?

Submissions are open. Send us your best shots.

Explore Dzüleke wildlife →

For any questions, email contact@dzuleke.com.