Easter with the Buzzards

Before I leave for a 4 day long birding trip tomorrow, let me sign off with an Easter cartoon. Hare and rodents are a favourite prey of the buzzards and they are very effective in keeping a check on the populations of these otherwise prolific breeders.

Happy Easter to all readers in advance :-) 

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

CITES' Ivory Convention

Recently, African poachers massacred nearly 90 elephants in Chad. No prizes for guessing who's responsible for the hike in the unscrupulous demand for ivory. These recent events of poaching are not only ruthless but utterly unsustainable and alarming. If this goes on unchecked, elephant populations will vanish from the face of the continent before we know it.

Read The Guardian's report here- http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/19/86-elephants-chad-poaching-massacre

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

Earth Hour- you're doing it wrong!

A cartoon on Earth Hour first published in Sustainuance. You can read this one and some more on their gallery- http://www.sustainuance.com/sustainuisance/

Sustainability isn't as much about preaching as it is about practising. I've been to conferences on environment protection where ACs have been overused, sustainability talks where bottled water has been served, supposedly 'green' events where fireworks have been used to conclude the events. Do we love irony or are just a stupid race?

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

Q & A with Gowri Saligram and Rachel Lang

Gowri Saligram, who I know through Facebook, is a brilliant wildlife photographer. She writes a blog called 'Gowri's Nature Blog' which has her pictures and accounts. We had a fun Q & A session about my cartoons, which you can read here- http://www.gowrisaligram.com/2013/03/rohan-chakravarty.html

Also, Rachel Lang, who calls herself the 'Bush-bound girl' and writes about South African wildlife, featured some of my cartoons on her website- http://bushboundgirl.com/2013/03/18/reasons-to-smile-on-a-monday-a-guest-post-by-green-humour/

It sure is fun to interact with such interesting fellow wildlifers, thanks to the social media!

Making themselves at home

The most widespread passerine of the world, the sparrow personifies adaptability like no ther bird. It'll make as much a meal on the fruit trees in your backyard as in your trash bin. It'll make itself at home as much in the bird box as in an unused electric metre. Anything from waste cloth to discarded electric wires is nesting material for the sparrow. In spite of the alarming declines in sparrow populations, I consider myself extremely fortunate to have a home in a town that still harbours a healthy sparrow population, and to still be able to wake up to the chirps of the quintessential friendly neighborhood bird.

It's World Sparrow Day! Welcome back to Nature TV :-) 

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

An Earth Hour reminder!

Remember, the Earth Hour is being celebrated on 23rd March. My cartoons on corporate sustainability appear monthly in Sustainuance magazine, in a column called 'Sustainuisance'. Here's the first one that appeared in the series.You can read the issues on http://www.sustainuance.com/e-Magazine/mar-13/FLASH/index.html

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

World Sparrow Day

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.

20th March is celebrated as World Sparrow Day. The initiative was started by Mohammad Dilawar of 'Nature Forever' (http://www.natureforever.org/), who has been spearheading sparrow conservation efforts in India. 

The poster is available as A3 size prints (you can email me the to order your copies).  To read my cartoons on sparrows, visit http://greenhumour.blogspot.in/search/label/sparrow

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

Supper with a Snow Leopard

Did you know that the Snow Leopard has the longest tail in 

the Cat family? It uses its tail for balance while barreling 

down steep slopes, and as a blanket, wrapping it around its 

body when asleep. Catch this cartoon in the March issue of Tinkle Digest.

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