Renowned sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has won the people’s choice prize for his sand sculpture titled “Mahatma Gandhi- World Peace” at the ninth Moscow Sand Sculpture Championship 2016. Sudarsan has already won a gold medal for the 15-foot-high sculpture which he created at the championship held in April 2016. The sand art depicted the message of non-violence and peace.

• In the People’s Choice category, the sand sculpture got 60,000 votes of a total of 80,000 votes. At least 20 sand artists from countries around the world participated in the championship.
• Organiser Pavel Minilkov sent the official mail to Sudarsan and congratulated him for winning the people’s choice prize.

“I feel honoured that I have won People’s choice prize at Moscow Sand Art. I thank visitors for giving me 60,000 votes,” said Sudarsan.

• Pattnaik has also been honoured with a Padmashri — India’s fourth highest civilian award. He runs a sand art school at Puri beach in Odisha.

• In 2015, Pattnaik created world’s largest sand Santa Claus sand sculpture — 45 feet high using 100 tonnes of sand breaking his own earlier records. The sculpture erected in Puri beach was Pattnaik’s 9th record.

• This year in July Sudarsan Pattnaik had set another world record and secured a place in Limca Book of
  Records by carving 100 sand chariots at the Puri beach.