Himalayan Bears and Climate Change

The disruptions in the hibernation cycles of the Himalayan Black and Brown Bears from climate change, are now beginning to disrupt human lives as well. Comic from my column with The Hindu Sunday Magazine.

Plastics in Elephant Dung

New research (Gitanjali Katlam et al)) confirms the presence of plastics in elephant dung. Comic from my column with The Hindu Sunday Magazine.

Himalayan Wildlife Celebrates the Rhododendron Bloom

Come March, and red Rhododendron flowers can be seen painting the Himalayas red their vibrance. Here are some Himalayan animals celebrating the bloom, and wishing my readers a happy Holi. Cartoon from my column with Roundglass Sustain. 

Save Thano

As Thano forest, an elephant corridor in Uttarakhand comes under threat from the state government for the expansion of Jolly Grant Airport in Dehradun, hundreds of citizens have staged protests. Thano acts as a carbon sink for the state's capital, which is already facing a spike in air pollution, 

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.

Chir Pine and Forest Fires of Uttarakhand

The Cheer Pheasant, a resident of Uttarakhand's Chir Pine forests tells the complicated story about the state's annual forest fires, in my column with RoundGlass Sustain.

Meet the Yellow throated Marten

Like all weasels, the Yellow-throated Marten is among the cutest-looking animals you'll ever see. And like all weasels, Yellow-throated Martens can shock you with their killing abilities! The comic appears in my column with RoundGlass Sustain, and is inspired by a recent report of a marten taking an adult Rhesus Macaque (an animal nearly twice its size) down in Corbett National Park.

Barn Swallows in the Himalayas

A comic on Barn Swallows nesting in the Himalayas from my column with Saevus magazine. With this comic, I complete six years of my association with Saevus, which also reaches its six year milestone with its March 2018 issue! Congrats to Saevus, and a big thanks for their continued association with Green Humour.

The comic takes inspiration from Ms. Janaki Lenin's beautiful article on Barn Swallows, published in The Hindu.

Pollution and the River Ganga

Recently, the Uttarakhand High Court declared the river Ganga a living entity with the same legal rights as a person. Does it help the cause of the river, that has long suffered from sewage and waste dumping, sand-mining, illegal fishing and diversion for canals? 

From my column with Mid-Day today.

Kailash Sacred Landscape- an Illustrated Map

(Click on images for a larger view)

The Kailash Sacred Landscape is distributed across three countries- India, Nepal and China; and is not only an important religious site, but also a haven for alpine and trans-Himalayan wildlife. The apex of the region is Mount Kailash (called Gang Rinpoche in Tibet), a Tibetan mountain sacred to five religions- the Hindus, Buddhists, Bons, Sikhs and Jains. Several important wildlife sanctuaries and biodiversity hotspots lie within the region, such as the Api Nampa Conservation Area in the Far-Western Developmental Region of Nepal, and the Askot Musk Der Sanctuary in Kumaon, Uttarakhand in India.

The map was illustrated for ICIMOD's Kailash Sacred Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative (KSLCDI), that aims at ecosystem conservation and strengthening trans-boundary co-operation by working with local communities. Research for my project took me trekking along the western Indo-Nepalese border, to ICIMOD's field sites in some of the most scenic and remote locations that I never knew of, such as Askot, the villages of Himkhola, Nakot and Jajurali; and witnessing some of the most majestic Himalayan wildlife such as Bearded Vultures, Himalayan Griffons, Gorals and Leopard Cats! The map aims to present the fauna and the various communities of the region as a single, inter-dependent unit, and to create an at-a-glance reference of all important elements- parks, mountains, pilgrimage sites and passes that comprise the region. Here are some previews from the map-

The fauna of KSL- the Himalayan Red Fox, Kiang, Bharal, Wild Yak, Himalayan Musk Deer, Himalayan Monal, Snow Leopard, Leopard Cat, Himalayan Goral, Yellow-billed Blue Magpie, Black-necked Crane, Bearded Vulture, Himalayan Tahr, Tibetan Sand Fox and the rare Himalayan Brown Bear.

Some people of KSL- seen here are Tibetan millet farmers, a Hindu Sadhu, Buddhist and Bon pilgrims, Tibetan monks, a Tibetan Yak herder, honey harvesters from Kumaon, wool weavers from Khar in Nepal, dancers from Uttarakhand, Churya (butter-fruit) collectors from Uttarakhand and Nepalese women dancing for 'Teej' (a Hindu festival).

Some important sites in KSL- the town of Grabyang, the Yam Dwaar, the Halji Gumba, Haatkalika Temple, Mount Kailash, the town of Darchen, the Yalbang Gumba, the Trugo Gumba and Narayan Ashram.

The project is my first trans-boundary illustration! A big thanks to ICIMOD's fantastic team at Kathmandu for commissioning me for this, and assisting me with timely references and information throughout the project; and to my friend Sumit Arya, a bird scientist at the WII studying population densities of Himalayan birds, for taking me around in Kumaon.

(Copyrights to all images in the post belong to ICIMOD)

Uttarakhand Burning- A National Emergency

The forests of Uttarakhand have been set on fire by the timber mafia (report here). A nexus of timber black marketers and villagers has been unearthed. Please spread the word and request immediate intervention by the government. Follow updates from Uttarakhand on this Facebook page.

You can download a high resolution image here-