Indian documentary The Elephant Whisperers bagged the Best Documentary Short Award on Monday morning at the ongoing 95th Academy Awards.

Directed by Kartiki Gonsalves, the documentary competed alongside four other films in the category--  Haulout,  How Do You Measure a Year?,  The Martha Mitchell Effect and Stranger at the Gate.

While receiving the award, Kartiki said, “I stand here today to speak for the sacred bond between us and our natural world, for the respect of indigenous communities, and empathy towards other living beings we share space with and finally, for coexistence,” Gonsalves said in her acceptance speech.”

She then thanked the Academy, the producer of the short, Guneet Monga, and her family before dedicating the win to her “motherland India”.

“Thank you to the Academy for recognising our film, highlighting indigenous people and animals. To Netflix for believing in the power of this. To Bomman and Belli for sharing their sacred tribal wisdom. To Guneet, my producer. To my entire team and finally, to my mother, father and sister who are up there somewhere and you are the centre of my universe, to my motherland India,” she said.

The Elephant Whisperers depicts an unbreakable bond between two abandoned elephants and their caretakers. It is produced by Guneet Monga and Achin Jain of Sikhya Entertainment.