Namibia Ecuador and Australia

Quiz time! Pick the 'developed' country out of the three: Namibia, Ecuador, or Australia?

Cartoon for DW Environment. 

Irulas win the Padmashri

Vadivel Gopal and Masi Sadaiyan, members of the snake-catching Irula community, were among the 106 Padma awardees on this Republic Day (26th January). The duo has not only led snake-catching operations in India but also advised snake expeditions abroad!

Despite playing a critical role in saving thousands of lives each year from snakebites, Irulas who have been the backbone of the antivenom supply in India, have faced caste-based injustices over decades.

The comic appears in my column with The Hindu Sunday Magazine. A couple of years back, I wrote and illustrated a short comic book on snakebite awareness called ‘Making Friends with Snakes’ in collaboration with the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and renowned herpetologist Mr. Romulus Whitaker, which is available via Pratham Books and Storyweaver. The book was a recipient of the Green Literature Festival Award, 2021.

Taxonomy of Indian Conservationists

Taxonomy of Indian Conservationists: a two-part comic series that appears in my column with The Hindu Sunday Magazine. Any resemblance to actual people is purely coincidental.

How many of these have you met?

(Thanks to Janaki Lenin for the prompt that resulted in this comic!)

Tanzania Maasai Eviction

On Tanzania's forceful eviction of the Maasai people from their ancestral lands for the creation of a game reserve for the UAE royal family, from my column with The Hindu Sunday Magazine.

Elisa Loncon and the Chilean Constitution

On Elisa Loncon, an indigenous Mapuche political leader leading the convention to rewrite Chile's constitution with indigenous principles at its centre. Comic from my column with The Hindu. 

New Zealand Pygmy Pipehorse

Meet Cylix tupareomanaia, a Pygmy Pipehorse from New Zealand : the world's first creature to be officially named in collaboration with an indigenous tribe, the Ngatiwai. The species name in Maori translates to 'garland of the seahorse'.

Comic from my column with The Hindu Sunday Magazine.

Bats and Booze

Booze: one of the many things humanity owes bats deference and gratitude for! Comic from my column with Roundglass Sustain. 

Colonial Science and Academics

A cartoon on 'colonial' science and academics, inspired by an article titled 'Shifting our Gaze' written by Bidyut Sarania, Krishnapriya Tamma, Samira Agnihotri, Subhashini Krishnan and Sutirtha Lahiri, from my column with The Hindu's Sunday Magazine.

Diamond Mining and the Environment

The forests of Buxwaha in Madhya Pradesh, an important wildlife corridor could be lost to a diamond mine being planned by the Aditya Birla group in the region, threatening not just endangered wildlife but also tribal livelihoods. A petition in support of the forest is on Change.org here. If you wish to use the Hindi version of the cartoon, please write to me on rohanchakcartoonist@gmail.com . 

Andaman Nicobar and Compensatory Afforestation

Salute to Niti Aayog's grand vision of bringing Hong Kong to India, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands! Comic from my column with Sunday Mid-Day. 

Caste and Conservation

Are the caste system and conservation related? In more ways than we think. Comic from my column with The Hindu.

Governments and Indigenous People

At a time when conservationists around the world are realizing that the very foundations of conservation need a reboot to not just involve but revolve around indigenous knowledge, indigenous peoples of the world are facing persecution and injustice from their governments. In India, the most recent blow to the rights of forest-dwelling indigenous tribes is the Draft EIA 2020, which takes the rights to participate in decision-making and raise objections to developmental projects in their own lands away from them.

Cartoon from my Gocomics page on World Indigenous Day.

The Great Indian Conservation Symposium

On the conspicuous absence of tribal and indigenous voices from The Great Indian Conservation Symposium. Comic from my column with The Hindu.

Wildlife Institute of India and Dibang Dam

Funded by Jindal Power (which will be executing the Etalin Dam project in Dibang Valley, along with the State Hydropower Corporation of Arunachal Pradesh), the Wildlife Institute of India conducted a 4 month study (despite a multiple seasonal replicate study being mandated by the Forest Advisory Committee), and concluded with a green signal for the project. 24 wildlife scientists from across India who have worked in Dibang Valley, have peer-reviewed the study, pointing out major flaws in the study, and the very fact that the study was designed to look more like research for a mitigation plan rather than analyzing the impacts of the projects in the first place.  

Read more on Arunachal Times here.

Mishmi Takin and Dibang Dam

If you are convinced that dams in Dibang Valley are a bad idea, please consider signing the petition against the Etalin Dam in Dibang Valley here , and write an email to adgfc-mef@nic.in, dgfindia@nic.in and igfc-mef@nic.in voicing your objection (email me on rohanchakcartoonist@gmail.com for a letter template if needed).

Comic from my column with Roundglass Sustain.

Coronavirus and the Uncontacted World

Just the uncontacted and 'uncivilized' world having the last laugh. 

Great Bear Rainforest Habitat Illustration

One of the most unique landscapes on earth where temperate rainforests meet the sea, Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia, Canada, is a mystical forest.  And this mystique transcends boundaries between land, water and air, and those between wildlife and native communities. The First Nations People of Canada that call the rainforest their home, have been fiercely safeguarding the forests from industrial logging and oil and gas companies. The rainforest is inhabited by many animals sacred to the First Nations People, such as the Spirit Bear (a rare sub-species of the American Black Bear in which some individuals are coloured white!), the Raven, the Bald Eagle, many species of Salmon, and of course, cetaceans like the Humpback and Fin Whales, and Orcas. As a result of rainforest meeting the sea, various interactions that are usually unheard of are witnessed here, such as enormous tracts of cedar and spruce meeting waters ruled by kelp forests, bears and wolves preying on spawning salmon, seals and sea otters bumping into wolverines and minks!

Other than its myriad flora and fauna, the illustration also depicts a First Nations couple in ethnic attire that celebrates the spirit of the animals they worship, veteran whale biologists Janie Wray and Hermann Meuter, who run the Cetacea Lab at Great Bear. Thanks to the Save Our Seas Foundation for commissioning the illustration.

Women led Conservation Initiatives in India

Happy International Women's Day! Here are just some of the many women-led conservation initiatives in India. Read more about these panthresses and their packs on on https://www.inseasonfish.com/, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/08/storks-science-india-animals-rare/, https://www.terraconscious.com/, http://nagalandconservation.in/amur-falcon-conservation/, http://thelastwilderness.org/, https://www.greenhubindia.net/, https://www.sanctuaryasia.com/magazines/conservation/10656-mud-on-boots-project-meet-the-project-leaders.html and https://www.blackbazacoffee.com/. Comic from my column with Sunday Mid-Day.

Road through Pakke

The East-West Corridor Road being planned through Pakke Tiger Reserve could wreak havoc on one of India's most biodiverse parks. I urge people reading this comic to write to the CM of Arunachal Pradesh on apcm876@gmail.com / cmoffice-arn@gov.in  to scrap the route through Pakke and consider an alternative route. Let's get our 'nation-building' right.

Comic from my column with Sunday Mid-Day.

Mulheres Indigenas

A reminder to Jair Bolsonaro that Amazon warrior women exist even outside of Greek Mythology and DC Comics. And they are going to bring him down. Comic from my column with Pune Mirror today.