Indian sand artist's work on global warming bags first prize

BERLIN: Renowned sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik's work -- a polar bear on top of a globe praying 'save my family'-- has won the first prize in an international competition on 'sculpture on global warming' here.

Pattnaik and his student Jitendra Kishore Jagadev were the only representatives from India at the USF World Double Championship on global warming here on Thursday.

An artist from the US bagged the second prize while a Dutch won the third slot.

Besides India, sand artists from Denmark, Germany, US, Britain, Spain, Holland, Japan, Belgium, Morocco, Italy and France were vying for honours at the championship, which started on June 5.

Patnaik created a 25-feet high sand sculpture that bagged the first prize in the competition, Indian sand artist's work on global warming bags first prize

In 2005, Pattnaik's 15-foot-high sculpture-- Mahatma Gandhi with Three Monkeys-- had made him the first Indian to win the first prize at the championship.

The artist from Orissa has so far participated in more than 35 international sand sculpture competitions and won many awards for the country.