Himachal announces winners of photography contest

The Department of Tourism and Civil Aviation today announced the winners of "Himachal Photoshoot Contest 2013", an online photography competition organised recently to promote tourism in the state.
The contest was organised in four themes/categories -- Nature, Adventure, Heritage and Culture, and Religion -- and 820 contestants posted 3,393 pictures.
Besides Himachal Pradesh, shutterbugs from all over the country, including Chandigarh, Haryana, Delhi, Uttrakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, West Bengal, and Dadar and Nagar Haveli, participated in the contest.
Munish from Bhakhra, Neelkhanth from Indore, Ranjana from Shimla and Pawan from Mandi won first four prizes while 29 people were given consolation prizes, Director of Tourism Mohan Chauhan said.

He said that the objective of the contest was to exploit tourism potential and attract tourists to the state. He said the participants had submitted pictures on various aspects of tourists' interests in different locations of Himachal.
The first prize of Rs 10,000 in Nature theme has been won by Munish Chandel from Bhakhra, second prize of Rs 7,000 was won by Anil Walia from Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), third prize of Rs 5,000 was bagged by Akash Deep from Hamirpur.

In Adventure theme, first prize was won by Neelkhanth Gangrade from Indore (Madhya Pradesh), second by Aswita Dutta Sarkar from Gurgaon (Haryana) and third prize by Navjot Singh from Ropar (Punjab).

In Heritage category, first and second prizes were won by Ranjana Sharma from Shimla and Arvind from Dharamsala, respectively, while in Culture and Religion, Pawan Kumar Kaushal from Mandi won the first prize, Akash Deep from Hamirpur the second and Shiva Gour from Dharamsala the third.
The first prize winners in each category will be allowed free boarding and lodging in HPTDC hotels for two days and one night for two persons any time between January 14 and March 31 next year.