Sitara A Karthikeyan is a Standard 9 student in Chinmaya International Residential School (CIRS), Coimbatore. Based in Sethumadai, Pollachi, at the foothills of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, she started wildlife photography at the age of 10. Sitara collects litter in gunny sacks from the sanctuary she grew up around and discourages others from the use of plastic. At Nature inFocus, she spoke about photographing in Corbett, and how that experience ensured her allegiance to nature.
She was chosen by the Washington-based International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) to spread the message of Conservation to the world and is going to represent India along with her brother Agasthya in WILDSPEAK. Sitara has won various photography awards including: Young Photographer of the Year 2014 (finalist award, 11-14 years) organised by BBC and Natural History Museum, London; DJMPC award (third prize, open category); Windland Smith Rice International Photographer (highly honoured image, youth category) organised by the Smithsonian Museum, Washington DC.
