“I Belong to the Forest” Picture Book. The story of a sun bear cub returning

Category: Visual Art

“Rags & Ragas” is a collection of environmental poems that discuss the themes on the degradation of our planet through deforestation, carbon emissions, pollution of air & water, lop-sided development, and political mismanagement. The poems are printed on reconstituted, as distinct from recycled paper. Free from bleach or dye, this unique material has been reconstituted from gunny sacks, rope, paddy husk, cigarette packs, discarded cardboard boxes & brown paper bags. It was initially used for city council bus tickets in the 50s.

Cecil Rajendra has been writing activist environmental poems for over 50 years. Deemed controversial, his passport was impounded in 1994 to prevent him from presenting his poems abroad. After an international outcry, it was returned to him and the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) urged him to put together a compilation of his environmental poems, i.e. Rags & Ragas, for use in schools, colleges and universities to educate and raise ecological awareness.