Scientist Pens Comic Book - To Educate School Children on Hedgehogs

Madras hedgehogs, one of the less studied and less known species is not much talked about, unlike large mammals such as tigers, elephants, or even birds. Sharada Balasubramanian tells us about Brawin Kumar, a researcher with the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), who has been working on finding these hedgehogs spread across the arid geographies of Tamil Nadu. He has published a comic book in the local language Tamil. This book talks about hedgehogs to school children who live in these geographies. Brawin believes educating students, and giving training programmes to teachers on this species, would really bring more awareness. In turn, it will help in conservation of these species, which are disappearing due to land-use changes and development.

- Sharada Balasubramanian

It is not often we hear about hedgehogs in India, not as much as we hear about them in Europe. Globally, there are 17 species of hedgehogs, and India hosts three species. There were only 16 species, but recently the 17th species was found in China. In Europe, the hedgehogs live in cold desert, and in India, they thrive in arid deserts. Where one species resides in deserts of Gujarat and Rajasthan, the other species, the Madras hedgehogs, also known as mull eli in Tamil, are found in pockets of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. These are local endemic species, and cannot be found anywhere else in the world, hence we need to take care of them.

“About a century ago, there was a mention of this hedgehog in the gazette written by the British, which mentioned that the mammal was commonly seen, and mostly lived in arid environment— but it was not studied or observed. Nothing is known about their behaviour, ecology. Even now, no one knows. After 2016, after we started working, data started trickling in,” says Brawin.

“Even now, if you actually research about Madras hedgehogs on Google Scholar, you will not find a single paper,” says Brawin. Also, he adds, “The access to research papers is also tough as they are expensive.”

Natural Behaviour

Hedgehogs live in thorny areas, semi-dry lands, bushy deserts, grasslands, edges of cultivated fields and dried ponds. The availability of food determines the distribution of the hedgehogs within their home range. “It is a unique animal, and has teeth that can grind, just like humans. It is a nocturnal animal and also insectivorous. They respond to sounds,” says Brawin.