New York, April 18 (IANS) An Indian American journalist is part of the Los Angeles Times team that won this year's Pulitzer award in the investigative reporting category.

Usha Lee McFarling won the award for a series of stories on the world's distressed oceans.

The five-part 'Altered Oceans' project revealed how man has choked the oceans with trash and basic nutrients killing advanced sea life, making people sick and effectively reversing the course of evolution back toward "the primeval seas of hundreds of millions of years ago", the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Pulitzer Prize is regarded as the highest honour in print journalism, literary achievements and musical composition. It is administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City.

Prizes are awarded yearly in 21 categories. In 20 of these, each winner receives a certificate and a $10,000 cash reward. The winner in the public service category of the journalism competition is awarded a gold medal, which always goes to a newspaper, although an individual may be named in the citation.

Click here to send Gifts to India