Thursday 29 September 2011

Backyard Wildlife



Written by my friend Bikramadittya Guha Roy, 'Backyard Wildlife' is a wonderful compilation of accounts of little secrets of the natural world, presented from a unique and a very interesting perspective. I had the pleasure of drawing a few cartoons for this book and am honored to be a part of this publication. Contributions from a lot of wildlife photographer-friends makes this even more special. Catch this book at your nearest Crossword in a few weeks from now!

Monday 26 September 2011

Green Humour featuring on sustainablescotland.com



Sustainablescotland.com has been very kind to call Green Humour a website worth dipping into, and they call me a 'very busy young man', I don't know why! I never knew about this until today. Many thanks to them for writing a whole paragraph about my cartoons. Do visit the link-

http://www.sustainablescotland.com/index.php/General/global-warming-population-pollution-environment-sustainably.html

Saturday 24 September 2011

No Man's Land



Tiger relocation operations have proved to be of tremendous importance in conservation. Areas that are extremely prone to man-animal conflict (such as the Sunderbans Delta in the Bay of Bengal) need efficient services of this nature for effective management of attacks, straying of wild animals and other wildlife-related conflicts. There have been some successful relocation operations carried out recently around tiger parks in India but a lot still remains to be done to make these operations more efficient and better managed.

Happy World Tiger Day!

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Sunday 18 September 2011

Life's good for a Male Chaffinch!


Winter is about to commence, and so is migration time! Did you know that in Scandinavia, only the female Chaffinch migrates, while the male stays home? What a life!

While chaffinches inhabiting milder climates are not migratory, the ones living in colder regions vacate their native lands in the winters. The often form mixed flocks with other passerines such as Bramblings. They nest in small cup-shaped structures where the female, herself a granivore, feeds her chicks a protein-rich diet of insects and grubs.

Friday 16 September 2011

O-gone!


So what exactly is eroding the ozone layer? Free radical catalysts like nitric oxide, nitrous oxide, hydroxyl, atomic chlorine and atomic bromine are the naturally occurring elements/compounds that cause the depletion of ozone. But the cause of the drastic degradation of ozone are man-made organohalogens- chlorofluorocarbons and bromofluorocarbons. Being highly stable, these compounds rise to the stratosphere where their reactions with UV rays liberate chlorine and bromine radicals. Each free radical initiates and catalyzes a chain reaction capable of breaking down over hundred thousand ozone molecules.

Here's a tribute to the ozone layer on ozone day.

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This work by Rohan Chakravarty is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Wednesday 14 September 2011

De-afforestation



Conversion of forested land to cultivation, for setting up ranches, for urbanization and for mines, dams and developmental projects- all comprise 'deforestation'. According to UN statistics, subsistence farming contributes to 48% of deforestation, commercial agriculture upto 32%, logging for 14% and fuel wood for 5%. Deforestation increases the greenhouse effect and is a massive contributor to the acceleration of global warming.

Here's one from the archives, re-drawn.
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This work by Rohan Chakravarty is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Monday 12 September 2011

Chirp-chat!


The declines in sparrow populations were first noticed in North America and were attributed to the spread of the House Finch. However, declines have been reported worldwide. Various causes for this have been proposed, including electromagnetic radiation, shortage of food and disease. In India, the sparrow evidently faces a sudden shortage of nesting sites owing to growing urban architecture, and is hence rapidly disappearing from cities. In the Netherlands, the population of sparrows has dropped to nearly half since the 1980s and the bird is even considered endangered there.





At my live cartooning demo at the Visual Arts Gallery, Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi for Threshold Art's event, "The Lost Sparrow". I had a great time here, interacting with some really talented people and some very enthusiastic students. An exhibition of my cartoons was also held as a part of the event. The colored image is a digital render done later, of the same cartoon I drew at the demo. I hope you enjoy it.

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This work by Rohan Chakravarty is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Tuesday 6 September 2011

The Swindled One!



Electromagnetic radiation from mobile towers is thought to be a major contributing factor to the drastic and sudden declines in the populations of House Sparrows worldwide. Other factors include the fast replacement of traditional architecture with urbanized designs, pesticides, lack of nesting sites and food.

Thought I'd leave you guys with a cartoon on Sparrow conservation before I leave for 'The Lost Sparrow'. Enjoy the toon, and catch me at my exhibition at the Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi on Thursday, September 8th. I will also be doing another sparrow cartoon as a demonstration for kids during the event. For more info about the event visit- http://www.gallerythreshold.com/the_lost_sparrow.html
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This work by Rohan Chakravarty is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Sunday 4 September 2011

Happy Teachers' Day!

The transition of a tadpole to an adult frog is a truly spectacular natural event. Frog eggs are laid as a globular mass that attaches itself to aquatic vegetation. The yolk nourishes the embryo until the larva breaks open and develops into a tadpole. In about 8 weeks, the hind limbs develop, which help the tadpole propel its body underwater. At about 9-10 weeks, the forelimbs begin to emerge, and this is when the tadpole starts to shed its tail by the process of apoptosis (programmed cell death). At around 12 weeks, the tadpole that has now grown into an almost tailless froglet, leaves its aquatic habitat. The whole transformation may claim upto a fourth of the tadpole's weight!


This one is for all my teachers, particularly the ones from Centre Point School, who instilled this belief in all of us!
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Saturday 3 September 2011

The Antarctic Salon



The polar regions of the earth are where the effects of global warming are most pronounced. Sea ice has been disintegrating constantly and at extremely alarming rates, the examples of which include the breaking away of the Larsen B ice shelf in Antarctica. The immediate effects of climate change are felt by the inhabitants of the poles such as polar bears, penguins. seals and whales. The penguins of Antarctica have very delicate and complicated life cycles, depending on seasonal variations and the availability of food. Any unprecedented change in this could mean death by starvation for their brood.

This is a re-rendition of old cartoon on global warming.


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This work by Rohan Chakravarty is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.