Six Morphs of the Asian Golden Cat

In recent camera trap records in Arunachal Pradesh's Dibang Valley, six different colour morphs of the Asian Golden Cat have been recorded! No other place in the world has so many different morphs of any single wild cat species! These variations are thought to be evolutionary adaptations to blend in with different densities of vegetation in the cat's rainforest habitat. 

The observations were made by Sahil Nijhawan, scientist at the Zoological Society of London, along with Iho Mitapo and Jibi Pulu from the native Idu Mishmi community. (I had the privilege of staying at Mr. Pulu's homestay and interacting with him during my field visit to Dibang Valley in 2018).

The comic appears in my column with Sunday Mid-day.

Manouria Impressa

Meet Manouria impressa, or the Impressed Tortoise, earlier known only from Southeast Asia, that has recently been recorded from Arunachal Pradesh in India! Spotted in a chance rescue operation in the Kamle district of Arunachal, this tortoise takes India's inladn turtle count to 29! Read more here. 

Chennai Water Crisis

Chennai is suffering the worst water crisis in its history. Meanwhile, in other cities, it's business as usual. 

Environmental Cost of a Cricket Tournament

The 2019 Cricket World Cup is on in full swing in England. I don't mean to be a spoilsport; I have grown up with a devotion to cricket unlike to any other sport, like the average Indian man. Albeit not carrying as high a carbon footprint as other wasteful sports like Golf, cricket does have a lot of scope to get greener, specially with climate change and water crises worsening in many parts of the world.

The comic appears in my column with Mid-Day.

Similarities between Kayani Bakery and the Kondana Rat

I have some great news for readers from Pune: starting today, you can now read Green Humour every fortnight on Pune Mirror! Making my Pune debut speaking of two things that are endemic to Pune, one of which I bet you had no clue about!

Keep an eye out for the Green Humour column on Pune Mirror on alternate Saturdays.

MoEFCC and Clearances

Question: What kind of environment minister quotes "granting faster clearances" as an achievement of the Environment Ministry? Answer: Clearance Man! And what gives him the impunity to do so? The fact that India consciously chose this fate for her forests.

Comic from my column with The Hindu.

The Phalarope Dad

This Fathers' Day, meet a dad with a difference- the male Phalarope! Phalaropes are shorebirds known for two very unusual characteristics: one, feeding by creating whirlpools and raising food from the bottom of the water, and two, their polyandrous mating system! Females mate with several males and it is the fathers that are assigned all nesting duties!

The comic appears in my column with Sunday Mid-Day. Happy Fathers' Day to all dads tame and wild.

Ask me Anything with Red Panda

A Red Panda does an Instagram AMA in my column with Saevus magazine this month! Nicknamed the Firefox, the Red Panda is Sikkim's State Animal.

Filmmaker Gunjan Menon's award-winning documentary 'The Firefox Guardian' is about a female forest guard in Nepal dedicated to saving the Red Panda. Prints of the comic are available on my webstore here. For orders within India, email me on rohanchakcartoonist@gmail.com.

Small Clawed Otter Pet Trade

Yet another mammal falls prey to the exotic pet trade- the Asian Small-clawed Otter. American filmmaker Aaron Gekoski's film 'Pet Otters: The trusth Behind Otter Cafes' delves into some very disturbing details of what social media and the world's unhealthy obsession with exotic pets are doing to the wild population of this species.

Comic from my column with Sunday Mid-Day. 

Wildlife Photography Exhibitions Then and Now

Wildlife photography then and now. Happy World Oceans' Day.

(The seahorse clinging to the earbud pays reference to an actual image by photographer Justin Hofman.) Cartoon from my column with Roundglass Sustain.

Rabb's Fringe Limbed Tree Frog

Remembering the Rabb's Fringe-limbed Tree Frog of Panama this World Environment Day, which went extinct in 2016. Comic from my column with RoundGlass Sustain.

Meet the Spirit Bear

I was recently assigned to create an illustration for the Great Bear Rainforest (British Columbia, Canada), when I learned about the Spirit Bear. This unique bear, a resident of temperate rainforests, is revered by the First Nations people, who believe that Raven, the Creator, created the spirit bear in memory of the frozen white glaciers of the ice ages! Why exactly some Spirit Bears are white in colour is still being researched, but some scientists speculate that it could be an evolutionary adaptation to catch salmon more successfully!

The comic appears in my column with The Hindu. My thanks to Michael Scholl of the Save our Seas Foundation for introducing me to this amazing animal! I hope I can see it in the wild some day.

Millennial Spider

What if spiders approached web-building like millennial artists approach art? Comic from my column with Sunday Mid-Day.