The Natural History Museum in London and BBC have been honouring wildlife photographer’s from across the world for the past 52 years and this year a photographer from Mumbai has been awarded the prestigious Wildlife Photographer Award.

42-year-old Nayan Khanolkar won the award after beating 50,000 entries from across the world with his photograph of a leopard walking under a pale bulb between mud houses of tribals in Aarey Colony near Mumbai.

The big cat can be seen staring directly at the lens in the picture for which Khanolkar spent four months before capturing the leopard in an image in January 2016. He strategically positioned his infrared cameras in the colony and four months later found out that one of them had taken the spectacular image.

The image called “The Alley Cat” won him an award for the Urban Wildlife category and Khanolkar also works with the Bombay Natural History Society while he clicks pictures of big cats to create awareness for wildlife conservation. Leopards from the Sanjay Gandhi National Park near Mumbai often stray into residential areas near Goregaon and Aarey colony.