Mr. Salim Pichan, an employee of MSSRF has won the Professional Photographer Award in Biodiversity Conclave of India International Science Festival 2020. He captured the photo of the mating of Indrella ampulla, a terrestrial snail which is also endemic to the Western Ghats. Mr. Pichan has dedicated his life to carrying out field botany studies and systematically inventorying the flowering plant species of the Western Ghats for the last 20 years. He discovered eight new species and six new records from the relatively well-studied group of angiosperms. He is also a fine social worker and received many awards and accolades for his achievements. In respect to his contributions to plant taxonomy, there is a species from orchid family described in his name called Seidenfadeniella salimii by the scientific community.
