Tuesday 17 June 2014

A Caricatured Map of Pakke Tiger Reserve



In the first of what I plan to continue as a series, here is a detailed, caricatured, peppy and fun map of Pakke Tiger Reserve, a gorgeous landscape located in the East Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh (North-east India). The map features 50 of my wildlife caricatures (see here) along with illustrations depicting the forest staff and indigenous people that live around the reserve, their lives and lifestyles, and their relationship with the forest. The region has two main tribes- the Nyishi and the Hruso (Aka) that have extremely rich and vivid cultures, lifestyles and heritage interwoven with the various elements of the hill forest habitat that they inhabit (I have earlier illustrated a poster on Nyishi folk tales). The illustrations cover nearly all of the threatened and endangered fauna of Pakke as well as some common animals found there. The threatened/ endangered fauna includes rare and charismatic species like the Great Hornbill (which is the state bird of Arunachal Pradesh), the Rufous-necked Hornbill, the Tiger, the Clouded Leopard, the Assam Roofed Turtle, the Fishing Cat, the Dhole, the Asian Elephant and the Hog Deer among others. The map will be printed as a huge A0 size print to cover a section of the new interpretation centre set up at Tipi, Pakke.

The project was done for the Forest Department of Arunachal Pradesh and the Wildlife Trust of India. Thanks to my friend Nandini Velho, who is a Ph.D student working on understanding community and protected areas in terms of efficacy of mammals and hunted species in the region, for providing all the information and inputs needed to create the map and for coordinating the project. This is my lengthiest and most detailed work till date, and I hope to continue this as a series, covering as many forests and parks from India as I can, and some even from around the world if the opportunity comes by. Here are some close-ups and illustration compilations from the map. Click on the images for a larger view-





Some of the birds on the map are these- The Pallas' Fish Eagle, the River Tern, The Black Eagle, the Wreathed Hornbill, the Lesser Adjutant and the Rufous-necked Hornbill, in clockwise order-

All the animals depicted in the map will be available as individual caricature prints soon! Now meet the folks who live around the reserve-




We also ended up compiling another poster with some of the stars of Pakke, for the interpretation centre-


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