Black Spotted Croaker the State Fish of Gujarat

Gujarat's newly declared State Fish, the Black-spotted Croaker or 'Ghol' is 'near-threatened' on the IUCN Red List because of overfishing and export of swim bladders for Chinese medicine. Hopefully, the new title will make the conservation of the Ghol a priority. Comic from my column with The Hindu Sunday Magazine.

Coronavirus and Traditional Chinese Medicine

If you thought the Chinese Government was finally on the right track about its wildlife trade policy following the coronavirus outbreak, think again! On coronavirus and Traditional Chinese Medicine, from my colun with Sunday Mid-Day.

Tokay Gecko Poaching

Among the most trafficked animals in the world, Tokay Geckoes are suffering heavily at the hands of poaching for the Chinese Medicine industry, falsely believed to have (you guessed it-) aphrodisiacal properties. The recent inclusion of the species in CITES Appendix II aims to help the gecko revive by regulating and monitoring this trade.

From my column with The Hindu Sunday Magazine.

The Douc Langur

The Grey-shanked Douc, one of the world's most beautiful primates, is endemic to Vietnam and is critically endangered, owing to hunting for bushmeat and poaching for Chinese medicine. The comic appears in my column with Mid-day today. Also featuring a Vietnamese endangered endemic, the Collared Laughingthrush.

Tigers and Pangolins

More than 70 tigers have been poached in India this year. Pangolin populations too continue to stoop, thanks to Chinese fads that never seem to go out of vogue!

Here's a cartoon on tigers, pangolins, poaching and Traditional Chinese Medicine from my column with BLink.

Black Rhinoceros

Black Rhinos differ from their African cousins, the White Rhinos in having hooked lips, as opposed to the wide lips of the White Rhino. Excessive poaching for the Black Rhinoceros' horn have decimated its numbers, with several sub-species already extinct. The Western Black Rhinoceros was recently pronounced extinct by the IUCN following a 2011 survey. The political crises in several African countries that fall in the range of the Black Rhino have only made the situation worse.

Here's this year's World Rhino Day post!

Being a Man-eater

A tiger's eye view of what it must be like to be a man-eater and face its repercussions. This one;s from my column in the Hindu's BLink. 

The Saola

The Saola, a critically endangered antelope-like bovid was spotted by camera traps set up by the WWF and the Vietnamese government in the Annamite Mountains in Vietnam. The mammal hadn't been seen in the wild for nearly 20 years! This rarity has led to its nickname- the Asian Unicorn and estimates place global populations at a mere 250-300 animals. The main threats to the Saola are habitat loss, poaching and accidental trapping in snares. 

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

Not Okay to Poach a Tokay!

Tokay geckos are among the largest geckos in the world, native to South-east Asia. Indiscriminate hunting for use in Traditional Chinese Medicine is threatening the conservation of this species. The geckos are easily located by trackers owing to their distinctive ‘tuco-tuco’ call. The trackers then set fire to their shelters, flushing the geckos out, capturing them in bags for smuggling. The geckos are killed and dried for inclusion in medicinal wines. As with many other TCM commodities, there is no scientific evidence to substantiate the medicinal value of the reptile. Although poaching of Tokays is a punishable offence, the trade remains unchecked because of the high number of poachers. Hundreds of Tokays are being poached by the day and conservationists fear losing out yet another species to Chinese Medicine. 

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

Halloween in the Wild

Jaw traps for tigers, Traditional Chinese Medicine for rhinos, fur pelts for leopards, ivory products and AK-47s for African Elephants, snares for bears, deer, and various small mammals, gillnets for turtles and crocodiles, nets for birds and the list goes on. Poaching ranks aming the top international crimes today.

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

Short-'CITE'd

China rejects CITES' appeal to ban tiger farms saying that "there is no evidence that tiger farms are encouraging poaching of wild tigers". I don't know if China loves to be ignorant, or just has a wacky sense of humour, or if the delegate was high on Tiger Bone Wine, that the Chinese sell with such aplomb!

Read more on http://www.tigertime.info/tiger-blog.php?entry_id=1343384881&title=china-rejects-cites-call-for-tiger-farm-ban

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

Traditional Chinese Torture!

Traditional Chinese Medicine is based on erroneous facts such as tiger bones having cancer curing properties, rhino horns being aphrodisiacs, and several others. While tigers and rhinos have suffered the most, recent victims have been lesser animals such as pangolins and tokay geckos. There have even been reports of lions being killed in Africa to supply bones to TCM makers, in the dearth of tigers. It is high time that international bans are imposed on TCMs, which will be a significant and positive step to the protection of several endangered animals across the world.

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