An award well deserved for India's sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik

Renowned artist Sudarsan Pattnaik bagged the gold medal at the ninth Moscow Sand Sculpture Championship "The magical world of sand" 2016.Pattnaik won the championship for best composition 'Mahatma Gandhi - World Peace'.

About twenty sand artists from countries around the world participated in the championship. The championship event was held from April 21-27 at Moscow.

Pattnaik's solo presentation-about fifteen feet high sand sculpture 'Mahatma Gandhi' depicted the message of non-violence and peace.

He has participated in more than 50 international sand sculpture championships across the world and won many awards for the country.

He has also got the fourth highest civilian award- Padma Shri in 2014.

Pattnaik runs a sand art school at Puri beach in Odisha.