Lakshadweep versus Maldives

Lakshadweep versus Maldives. Cartoon for The Hindu.

Here's hoping that the tourism make-over of Lakshadweep, which is already grappling from mass coral bleaching and crashing fisheries, will have sustainability at its core. 

Bonus marks to each one of you who identifies the bird in the cartoon correctly!

A Rare Media Interview with a Reintroduced Cheetah

A rare media interview with a reintroduced cheetah. From my column with The Hindu Sunday Magazine.

EIA notification on borders and LOC

Happy Independence Day, India! Have you changed your profile pictures yet? Cartoon from my column with The Hindu Sunday Magazine.

Tossing Coins in Rome

The great tosser, err... I mean the great leader! Cartoon from my column with Sunday Mid-Day.

Modi's 2070 Pledge at UN COP 26

Palm Oil Expansion in India

On the expansion of palm oil in India from my column with The Hindu.

IPCC Code Red

IPCC Code Red! Cartoon from my column with The Hindu Weekend.

Inspiring Environmental Leadership from Around the World

Inspiring environmental leadership from around the world, featuring Costa Rica's Carlos Alvarado Quesada, New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern, Belize's Johnny Briceno, and India's UN Champion of the Earth! Cartoon from my column with The Hindu.

COVID Resurgence and the Government of India

COVID resurgence and the Indian government's environmental response to a zoonotic disease. Comic from my column with Sunday Mid-Day. Completing 5 years of publishing Green Humour on Sunday Mid-day today.

Modi and Renewable Energy

Modi and renewable energy. Cartoon from my column with The Hindu, keeping in with the spirit of #NoShaveNovember! 

Char Dham Road and the Himalayas

The Char Dham Pariyojana has been dedicated by our Prime Minister to the Uttarakhand flood victims of 2013. Ironically, its construction has been exacerbating the same destruction of the Himalayas that caused the 2013 mishap. Uttarakhand's State Animal, the Musk Deer shares some concerns from my column with The Hindu.

Project Dolphin and National Waterways

Project Dolphin was launched by the Prime Minister this year on Independence Day (15th August) with the aim of conserving our national aquatic animal, the endangered Gangetic Dolphin. But another government endeavour, the National Waterways Project, threatens the species, which will involve dredging and development of the rivers that are the dolphin's last remaining strongholds. Is Project Dolphin actually designed to bear fruit or simply as a greenwashing measure for the ecologically destructive National Waterways Project? Comic from my column with The Hindu.

Anti-National Hangul

Jammu and Kashmir's state animal, the Hangul asks some 'anti-national' questions in my column with The Hindu. 

World Elephant Day and the Draft EIA

Dear MoEFCC, launching greenwashing publications on elephant conflict management on World Elephant Day makes no sense when you're all set to auction elephant habitat off to mines and development projects with the Draft EIA 2020.

MoEFCC Crushes Dissent

The Delhi Police cited the UAPA act to block environmental youth movement websites campaigning against the Draft EIA 2020, under orders from the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Government of India . Later under pressure, they modified their statement claiming it was a typographic error.

As a patriotic and proud citizen of India, here's my humble reminder to the police on how to do its job right: stand with the young voices of democracy, and oppose the forces that are threatening the future of your very children.

Suggestions for Environment Minister

How could India's environment ministry go back from being a joke to a ministry? Here are a few of my humble suggestions. Comic from my column with Sunday Mid-Day. 

The date for sending objections to the Draft EIA 2020 is almost here (June 30th). Register your responses using this link.

India Coal Auction

The Indian Government intensifies its war on the environment by auctioning forests in Central India off for coal mining, several to mines with no environmental clearance. This comes just a week after the fossil fuel related disaster at Baghjan Assam. 

Visit the link here to take action against the DraftEIA2020, which gives the government and industries impunity to plunder our forests. 

Draft EIA Notification 2020

Clearance Man is back, and this time he is more powerful than ever before! The draft EIA 2020 takes various steps to ensure that environmental violations by corporations and industries are legitimized, some of which are listed in this comic. The policy is being pushed during the lockdown period so as to minimize questioning and opposition.

Read the Draft EIA here. An article on the notification by Mongabay can be read here. You may also follow the Twitter account by environment lawyers Kritika Dinesh and Meenakshi Kapoor, called Redraft EIA 2020 (@ReDraftEIA2020) for simplified tweets that explain the environmental impacts of the various points of the policy. If you are convinced that the draft EIA should be withdrawn, you may voice your objection to the policy on Let India Breathe here, and on Jhatkaa here.

This comic has been as a purely voluntary effort and is exempted from any copyright contracts that most of my other comics are under with their respective publishers. In case you would like to use higher resolutions of the comic, email me on rohanchakcartoonist@gmail.com. 

My thanks to Krithika, Meenakshi and Sushant Bali for their inputs.

MoEFCC Demonstration

A few weeks ago, MoEFCC Chairman Prakash Javadekar demonstrated how to make your own mask. Here he demonstrates how to make your own blinders!

At a time when epidemics are being traced back and linked to environmental destruction worldwide, one would expect world leaders to make conservation central to governance. The Indian government unfortunately, has been doing quite the contrary. The exploitation of the country's natural reserves is being intensified. The draft EIA notification that the MoEF put out last month seeks to do away with public hearings for projects like dams, mines, airports etc., and legitimizes environmental violations by such projects (details here). Moreover, the government has also been using the lockdown period to host video conferences to grant environment clearance to projects in the pipeline, without any scope of questioning or objection. If this is the government we have chosen, it is also our responsibility to ensure responsibility and accountability from it. What we must demand is that environmentally sensitive projects may not be cleared over virtual meetings without following due process , and that projects for which there is strong opposition from resident communities (for example the Dibang Etalin Dam) be scrapped for greener alternatives.  Yet another such project is the proposal to mine in Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve in Assam. 

Sign the petition to save Dibang Valley on Conservation India here. If you represent an institute, university or organization, get your board to email the ministry voicing objection to the draft EIA notification. The MoEF has a website dedicated to forest clearance. Let us stay vigilant, check this website regularly for the status of such projects, and write letters and emails to the ministry to keep it on its toes. Let us not wear the blinders that the government wants us to wear. 

Comic from my column with The Hindu's Sunday Magazine.

Dibang Etalin Dam

A Forest Advisory Committee meeting scheduled for today via video conferencing has in its agenda to make way for several forest clearances, one of which is for the the disastrous Etalin/Dibang Dam project. A simple Google search on the environmental impacts of Dibang Dam will lead you to numerous articles about why tribes and communities in Arunachal have been opposing this project tooth and nail. Other agenda of the meeting can be accessed on forestclearance.nic.in.