IUCN Pronouns for Threatened Species

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) categorises species into the following labels:

DD: Data deficient

LC: Least Concern

NT: Near-threatened

Vu: Vulnerable

En: Endangered

Cr: Critically endangered

EW: Extinct in the Wild

Ex: Extinct

NE: Not evaluated

The cartoon appears in my column with Roundglass Sustain. The entire archive of Green Huour comics published on Roundglass is on https://roundglasssustain.com/green-humour

In case you’re wondering where you’ve seen that moose before, it’s this comic on COP 27 and Biodiversity COP15!

The Wildlife Map of South Africa

Diamond and gold may well be South Africa's most valued reserves, but this beautiful country's most invaluable treasure is its wildlife! True to its title of 'Rainbow Nation', South Africa boasts of a biogeography as diverse and complex as its multicultural ethnicity: from the savanna forests of Kruger National Park at one end, home to the Big Five; to the unique Cape Floral Kingdom at the other extreme, home to some of the country's rarest endemics. The topographically diverse nation has been designed to harbour a staggering amount of biodiversity by a few crucial factors: oceanic currents from two oceans that meet at its southern tip, and the Great Escarpment that divides the country into the various biomes that we see on the map: the Karoo scrubs of the northwest, the Kalahari desert in the north, the fynbos coastal ecosystem of the southwest, mountain forests of the south, the Drakensberg highlands shared by SA and Lesotho in the east, and the bushveld and savanna forests of the northeast. 

The map brings together more than a hundred of the country's wild animals in one massive illustration, with a special focus on endemic species. Prints are available on my webstore here, shipped worldwide. For orders within India visit my Indian webstore.

(A big thanks to friends and mentors who have hosted me in South Africa: Swati Thiyagarajan and Craig Foster of Seachange with whom I am working on a very exciting illustrated compilation; and Karishma Pais and Brajesh Bajpai!)

Click on the images below for some close-up snippets:

Biodiversity Map of Assam

(Click on the images for a larger view)

Easily among the states with the richest biodiversity in India, Assam is a true jewel in the North-eastern crown. Its floodplains, both ravaged and replenished by the mighty Brahmaputra, are home to Indian giants like the Asian Elephant and the One-horned Rhinoceros (the state animal), the world's smallest pig- the Pygmy Hog, as well as endangered birds like the Black-breasted Parrotbill. Its forest streams and marshes offer refuge to its state bird, the rare White-winged Wood Duck, and its hills house endemic species like the Cachar Bulbul and the Assam Laughingthrush. Assam's birdlife is much sought after and celebrated by birdwatchers from India and abroad, boasting of nearly 700 bird species, made possible by the merger of the dense Himalayan foothills and the fertile Brahmaputra floodplains in the state. Assam's cities and towns protect rare inhabitants like the Greater Adjutant Stork, and lakes like Maguri Bheel (unfortunately ravaged by an oil fire last year) are home to large numbers of migratory waterfowl, including the critically endangered Baer's Pochard. And its hill forests are home to some of the rarest Indian primates: the Golden Langur, the Hoolock Gibbon, and the Pig-tailed and Stump-tailed Macaques. Assam also has the highest number of freshwater turtle and tortoise species for any state in India!

The compass of the map pays tribute to Hargilla Army, an all-women team dedicated to conserving the Greater Adjutant, led by Ms. Purnima Barman. Thanks to Ms. Archita Baruah Bhattacharya and WWF India for commissioning the illustration! (Copyrights belong to WWF India)

Kaziranga Flood Relief

Homage to all the people, organization and forces responsible for making Kaziranga bounce back after every flood season. Comic from my column with Roundglass Sustain.

Sumatran Rhinos and Captive Breeding

Inspired by a recent true incident in the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Indonesia's Way Kambas National Park, in which a female rhino refused to mate with her mate after he was paired with a second female to boost the population of Sumatran Rhinos. Comic from my column with The Hindu.

Rhinos of the World

Rhinoceroses, despite being among the world's most loved large herbivores, are also among the world's most endangered. While brutal and indiscriminate poaching for their horns has been the single biggest threat to their existence, habitat loss too has played its part. 5 extant species; two in Africa and 3 in Asia survive today on the very brink of extinction. Africa's White or Square-lipped Rhino is the world's largest rhinoceros, while the Sumatran Rhino the smallest (and hairiest!). Three species, the Black, Javan and Sumatran Rhinos are critically endangered, while several subspecies are either critically endangered or already functionally or regionally extinct (e.g. Bornean Rhinoceros, Northern White Rhinoceros, Chittagong Rhinoceros).

Prints of the poster are available on my webstore here. 

For orders within India, email me on rohanchakcartoonist@gmail.com. The products available for orders within India are listed below:

A2 Posters (Matte surface, loose)- Rs. 1200 for the first print, 1000 for the second print onwards

Loose Posters (A3- Individual species and compilation)- Rs. 500 for the first copy and Rs. 200 for the second copy onwards

Coffee Mug (Compilation)- Rs. 850

Tshirts (individual species/compilation)- Rs. 1300 (White, Cotton, roundneck, sizes- S,M,L,XL)

Uses and Impacts of Palm Oil

Uses of palm oil versus impacts of palm oil. Meanwhile Malaysia just lost its last Sumatran Rhinoceros, and the critically endangered species is now extinct from the country.

Comic from my column with The Hindu.

Online Wildlife Trade

Welcome to the internet, the world's one stop shop for illegal wildlife trade. Comic from my column with The Hindu.

Symbiosis and Social Media

Symbiosis in the age of social media. From my column with Gocomics. 

Rhino and Elephant Poaching

Sudan, reportedly the last male Northern White Rhino, died at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya yesterday. Sudan may have died of old age, but it is poaching and the demand for rhino horns and ivory that took his sub-species out. 

From my column with RoundGlass Samsara.

IUCN Status

The comic appears in Roundglass Samsara and The Hindu BL-ink.

The Woolly Mammoth

The Woolly Mammoth meets some animals of today! My space with the Turkish children's magazine Arastirmaci Cocuk this month, is about this hairy prehistoric giant.

Some more cartoons done for the magazine, which originally appear in Turkish-

Kaziranga Floods

On the floods in Kaziranga from my column with Mid-Day today. A big thanks to all the heroes from the Forest Department and the various NGOs in Assam, working to ease the conflict between people and stranded animals.

Shoot on sight for poachers versus human rights

BBC's recent documentary 'Killing for Conservation', based on the shoot-on-sight policy followed by Kaziranga National Park's forest staff for poachers, raised a huge row about its ethics and human rights. Here's my take, that appears in my column with Mid-Day today.

Oxpecker and Rhino foursome

From my Gocomics page today.

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!

Poaching of the One-horned Rhino

A comic about the poaching of rhinos that only seems to escalate, both in the case of the Indian one-horned, and its African two-horned cousins. The comic appears in my Sunday column with Mid-Day.

Illustrations for Sanctuary Asia

Sanctuary Asia commissioned me to draw illustrations for their World Environment Day and Global Tiger Day campaigns last year. Nagpur, the 'tiger capital of the world' is also my hometown!

An Illustrated Timeline of the Bombay Natural History Society

(Image copyright- Bombay Natural History Society. Click for a larger view)

In one of the most exciting projects I got to work on recently, I illustrated a timeline spanning 133 years of one of India's prime wildlife organizations- the Bombay Natural History Society. In the illustration, William the Hornbill, who was the BNHS' resident bird and mascot, takes you through some of BNHS' major achievements and landmarks since its year of foundation (1883) in British India, until the present. I also had the pleasure of reading about and drawing some of the most eminent naturalists in India's history, both English and Indian, including EH Aitkien, Col. FW Wall, Dr. Salim Ali, WS Millard (who introduced Dr. Salim Ali to ornithology), SH Prater (Author of The Book of Indian Mammals), Dillon Ripley (who co-authored 'The Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan' with Dr. Salim Ali), Humayun Abdulali, JC Daniel, Zafar Futehally, Dr. Asad Rahmani, Isaac Kehimkar, Dr. Vibhu Prakash and marine biologist Dr. Deepak Apte who is the current director of the BNHS. Working on the project also gave me a chance to spend some time at the BNHS office and taxidermy museum in Fort, Mumbai; which is a Mecca for wildlife enthusiasts in India. 

The massive illustration has been published alongside BNHS' latest portfolio. A big thanks to Dr. Apte and the BNHS team for choosing me for this!

Illustrations for BNHS Merchandise

I illustrated a couple of wildlife caricatures for BNHS' apparel and merchandise store- the Lesser Florican and the One-horned Rhino. The t-shirts and merch are available via BNHS.