Balangir: A cartoonist duo from the district have won a special prize at a national-level cartoon contest on environmental degradation.

Brothers Aswini and Abani Rath won special prize at the contest, jointly organised by Cartoon Watch, a Raipur-based cartoon magazine, and the Chhattisgarh Environment Conservation Board. The theme for the contest was "Beat Plastic Pollution" and the duo's cartoon sent a strong message on the plastic menace, considered to be one of the biggest pollutants.

Expressing happiness over their success, Aswini, the elder of the two, said they always took environment issues and climate change as a challenge.

"It is important that cartoonists talk about burning issues such as climate change and environment pollution. We are happy that our work has been rewarded," he said.

This is not the first time that the duo's works reflected such topics. They started a campaign some time back to warn people about increasing temperatures and its effects through their cartoons. They prefer to draw cartoons on climate change, global warming, environment pollution and other related themes and circulate it in the media, exhibitions and on the Internet.

Aswini's interest in making cartoons on environment issues dates back to when he had taken part in an international exhibition on "Global Warming" in Peru in 2008.

"I had contributed a cartoon to the exhibition. It showed the globe as a pressure cooker, which cannot stand the heat inside and emits gas," he said.

"There were three entries from India, but only my work was selected. It was exhibited alongside greats such as Musa Gumus (Turkey), Raed Khalid (Syria), Jin Xiao Xing (China), Ivan Anchuokov (Russia) and Hosein Eskandari (Iran).They are greats in this business and I have been inspired by their works."

"It was after seeing their cartoons on global warning that we decided to take up the drive. Being in extreme climate fascinated us from childhood. Our background in science also helped us understand nature and our work reflects that. We always try to keep the common man aware of this manmade disaster," he added.

Aswini, who teaches botany in a college, has also undertaken research on the extreme climate of western Odisha. "The environment of western Odisha is under extreme pressure because of uncontrolled exploitation of nature. In many parts, the process of desertification is under way," Aswini said.