A cartoon published in a leading Australian daily on Monday depicted Indians as starving and eating solar panels, drawing rebuke with many condemning it as “racist”.

The cartoon appeared in the Rupert Murdoch-owned Australian in response to the Paris climate conference.

The cartoon shows an emaciated Indian family breaking up solar panels and one person trying to eat them with “mango chutney”.

The climate deal was clinched with the approval of India, China and the US, after days of tough negotiations with the legally-binding pact seeking to limit global warming to well below two degrees Celsius and committing $100 billion a year from 2020 to help developing nations.

The cartoon sparked furore on social media and academic circles with many saying it is racist.

Amanda Wise, an associate professor of sociology at Macquarie University, said in her view the cartoon was shocking and would be unacceptable in the UK, the US or Canada.

“This cartoon is unequivocally racist and draws on very base stereotypes of third world, underdeveloped people who don’t know what to do with technology,” Ms Wise told Guardian Australia.

“India is the technology centre of the world right now and has some of the most high-tech industries on the planet in that part of the world. The underlying message is that people in developing countries don’t need all these technologies to do with climate change — they need food,” she said.

The cartoon was widely condemned on Twitter.