According to latest IT news, Wikipedia Loves Earth competition, going on since 2013 included Pakistan this year for the first time as one of the participant countries. Pakistan is only the third country from South Asia to be a part of this competition. The winners for this annual photography competition, which was held in May, have been finally announced.

26 countries were a part of the competition this time around. The competition aims to photograph as many natural monuments as possible under the free license and also contribute to their preservations by raising public awareness.

Wiki Loves Earth 2015 saw over 100,000 pictures submitted by about 9,000 participants. The competition was organized by numerous national Wikipedia media representatives who held national contests. The national juries from 26 countries submitted top 10 photographs from their country to the international jury. A total of 259 photographs were submitted to the international jury.

Shangrila Lake by Zaeem Siddiq was the first placed entry out of 100,000 pictures

The jury consisted of 9 experienced photographers, from different countries, who specialized in nature photography. They selected and ranked the photographs in several stages by utilizing a web tool. The web tool was developed by non-voting jury moderators.

During the first stage, each jury member independently rated all photos with 1 star to 10 stars. 29 images were rated over 5.8 stars and selected for the final round. The jury rated and commented on the 29 images in the final round. The comments were visible to all members while the ranks were hidden. The images were ranked based on points out of 20. All the points were summed up to combine the jury ranking while the initial stages results were used as tiebreakers.

At the end, it was a Pakistani which took the crown to this year’s Earth photography. Zaeem Siddiq photographed the Shangrila Lake at the Central Karakoram National Park in Gilgit-Baltistan. The jury applauded the scenery for its beautiful composition and nice reflection in the water. The lake is also known as Lower Kachura Lake. Shangrila was named after a book titled “Lost Horizon” by James Hilton. The park was founded in 1992 to protect the world’s largest glaciers outside the Polar Regions and is characterized by extreme altitudes of up to 8,000 meters. The complete list of winners is given below:

1. Shangrila Lake by Zaeem Siddiq

2. Laurisilva of Madeira by Jorge Nelson Alves

3. Nationalpark Hohe Tauern by Bernd Thaller

4. Bratental Nature Reserve by Harald Knoke

5. Ichkeul National Park by Mohamed El Golli

6. Carpathian Mountains by Vitaliy Bashkatov

7. Wolayer See by GeKo15

8. Etang de Vaccares by Didier Deveze

9. Anhumas abyss by Caio Vilela

10. High Tatras by Łukasz Śmigasiewicz