A Baby Seal's Last Wish

Seal hunting is one of the most gruesome forms of hunting, still practised in regions like Canada, Greenland, Norway and Russia. Baby seals are clubbed to death to avoid damage to the pelts from bullets. The prime victim of this atrocity is the Harp Seal, other preferred species being Hooded and Grey Seals. Although a majority of the hunting is with the use of firearms nowadays, hunting with the Hakapik, a wooden club with a hammer and a metal hook, is still common. The method involves striking the seal pup with the hammer and crushing its skull and then skinning the animal. Seal hunting has attracted severe criticism over the years and Canada, which is the largest seal hunting ground, is the centre of the seal hunting debate.

This cartoon appeared on my Gocomics page today.

E-waste Management

E-waste or electronic waste that comprise discarded electronic devices are a growing environmental threat. In both developed and developing countries, e-waste contributes to landfills and its disposal poses serious biological hazards from the contaminants it contains. Management and recycling of e-waste involves deconstructing a device and extracting parts from, to avoid mining of raw material.

The cartoon appeared in The Hindu's BLink earlier this month.

Some Victims of Global Terrorism

Not only is poaching the 5th largest criminal operation in the world, it also fuels the ugliest international plague- terrorism, and is also a result of it. In African countries particularly, where poaching is an international organized crime, poaching of elephants for their tusks and rhinos for their horns has been turning increasingly vicious over the years. The enormous backing from Chinese markets and the funds obtained for these products form a major part of the economic structure of terrorist organizations like the Boko Haram. 

Kathryn Bigelow's short film 'Last Days' is excellent commentary on this crisis. Diogo Verrisimo, a reader on my Facebook page, has penned an interesting contradictory opinion on the issue that can be read on 'The Conversation' here.

The cartoon appeared in my fortnightly column in The Hindu's BLink last weekend- http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/blink/explore/article6793700.ece

Penguins and Climate Change

One on penguins and climate change published in the January issue of Saevus magazine.

Crow Sanctuary

Here's one to begin 2015 on a bright note, A very happy new year to all Green Humour readers!