Nepal, Oct. 2 -- Ajay Narsingh Rana grew up in Kathmandu's urban jungle. His father Mohan Narsingh designed postage stamps, using photographs of impeyan pheasants, ghoral, and butterflies to convert them into line drawings on tissue paper and printed on tiny stamps depicting Nepal's rich biodiversity.

Rana's uncle was a forester from whom he was inspired to look out for flora and fauna in tiny green pockets still left in the city. Growing up in a household that maintained a closeness to the natural world and images portraying it laid the foundation of what was to become Rana's lifelong passion: photographing Nepal's biodiversity.

He took up mountain biking and hit the trekking trails, pedalling deep into the wilderness of the mountains...