Saffron coloured animals

Let's 'make saffron great again' by saving these animals, and by voting for an environmentally responsible government this year!

I have some exciting news to share with my readers. You may remember that I debuted with The Hindu's Sunday Magazine last year in December with this comic strip. This year, with this comic, I begin a weekly column with the paper! You can now read Green Humour every Sunday, in one of India's most widely read newspapers. 

Typhoon Mangkhut and Hong Kong

Hong Kong has been grappling with housing for its skyrocketing population, and the government's proposed solution is reclaiming land from the sea. Environmental organizations have warned against the policy's disastrous environmental consequences. Typhoon Mangkhut cut straight across the city recently, thankfully not claiming any human life. This could well serve as a timely reminder to the government to not meddle with the natural forces along its coastline, whose mangroves, the first line of defence against natural disasters, are under direct threat from development.

Patriotism and the Cattle Egret

Patriotism for dummies by the one and only, Cattle Egret! Wishing all Green Humour readers a very happy Indian Independence Day!

The Gaur

The Gaur or the Indian Bison is not just the largest wild ox in the world, but is also very particular about footwear! From my column with Roundglass Samsara.

12 Green Resolution Suggestions from Wild Animals

If they can do it, so can we, right? Which ones are you taking up this year?

The series appears in my space with Nature in Focus today.

In case you forget your green resolutions down the year, you can purchase a poster on my webstore here, to keep reminding you of the list! (Also try to indulge less in consumerism this year, please, other than purchasing Green Humour prints and merchandise!)

Why the Dolphin Smiles

Earlier this month on a visit to Hong Kong over an assignment, I took a trip with WWF to the fishing village of Tai O. While the trip yielded my first dolphin sightings in the wild (the Chinese White Dolphin, a race of the Indo-Pacific Humpbacked Dolphin, for which the Pearl River Delta in Hong Kong is one of the last remaining strongholds); a very special moment for me, I also happened to witness a rather jolting sight- that of a dead infant.

Infant mortality for dolphins has been on the rise in the Pearl Delta, because of the rising level of pollutants in the water, that go on to accumulate in and contaminate the milk of dolphins nursing their pups. Seeing that smiling face on a dead body has been one of the most disturbing moments for me in nature. Being one of the world's busiest ports, Hong Kong's polluted waters are already largely devoid of natural marine resources, posing a critical threat to the population of Chinese White Dolphins. 

The situation for Indo-pacific Humpbacks in India is not any better, with boat traffic, pollution, over-fishing, and noise threatening their existence. The comic appears in my column with Mid-Day today. This one's for you, baby dolphin.

Cartoons on Wildlife Photography for Dusty Foot Productions

Dusty Foot Productions headed by the dynamic wildlife film-maker Rita Banerji came out with a manual on wildlife photography for students of its conservation film-making venture, Green Hub last year. I wrote and drew some cartoons for the manual, on the technical aspects of wildlife photography, and also illustrated its cover (the image above, with the gibbon, hornbill and the rhino checking out a video camera).

(On equipment maintenance)

(On using natural light)

(On focus)

(The rule of thirds)

(On the types of cameras used for wildlife photography)

(Aperture)

(On the different modes of shooting)

(On ISO)

(On shutter speed)

(On various shots used to frame a subject)

(On editing/sound editing)

Thanks to Rita Banerji for commissioning me for these cartoons that I had a blast doing, and to Nina Subramani for designing the manual!

E-bird and the Indian Rhino

E-bird is an online program of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Audubon Society, that enables bird-watchers to upload checklists real-time. E-bird today is not just a platform for sharing bird checklists and reporting sightings, but also a global community of birdwatchers. 

If Indian Rhinos had E-bird accounts, they'd be full of sightings of rare grassland birds that are so difficult to track! Here's one for my fellow E-birders from my weekend column with The Hindu BLink.

Carpooling Mynas

In the swamps of East India where the One-horned Rhinoceros roams, Jungle Mynas act as the Oxpecker's Indian counterparts, following rhinoceroses, dining on the ectoparasites that dwell on their hide. Cattle Egrets too, keep close company, snapping up insects that get disturbed by the movement of the rhinos, and can often be seen hitching a free ride on the rhinos' backs.

Here's a little message from these East Indian birds, in the wake of pollution worries in the Indian capital.