The legendary abominable snowman of the Himalayas remains camera-shy, but a Japanese team has made a breakthrough, discovering what the lead researcher says are yeti footprints. "Myself and other team members have been coming to the Himalayas for years and we can recognize bear, deer, wolf and snow leopard prints and it was none of those," Yoshiteru Takahashi told AFP upon his team's return from a 6-week mission.
 

"The footprints were about 20 centimeters long and looked like a human's," he said of the 8-inch imprints.
Their claim has been declined by experts by saying that it looks human !

The state Cabinet yesterday decided to donate Rs 1.01 crore from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund to help victims of recent flash floods in the Leh area.The Cabinet to this effect adopted a unanimous resolution and in addition, all members of the Cabinet decided to contribute Rs 11,000 each towards the fund.

The Chief Minister appealed to MLAs, government employees, industrial houses, trade and commerce organisations and people from all walks of life, to donate liberally for the noble cause.

Meanwhile, All-Spiti Gompa Association and tribals of Spiti have donated Rs 3, 31,210 for the victims. Local MLA Dr Ram Lal Markandey presented a draft to the Chief Minister here yesterday.

Contradictions remained central to the ongoing investigation into the road accident that claimed the lives of 21-year-old Sukhwinder Singh and six-year-old Harpreet Singh, both residents of Kansal village, near here.

The UT IGP, PK Srivastva, talking to the media today, said the case was nothing more than that of causing death due to rash and negligent driving. The police had registered a case of causing death due to rash and negligent driving under Sections 279 (rash driving), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 304-A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC.

The family of the victims and the lone eyewitness, however, accused the police of distorting facts to favour the accused — 19-year-old Sukhmani Brar who reportedly belongs to an influential family.

Asked about the delay in arresting the accused 20 hours after the incident, the IGP admitted that there had been delay and said they were looking into the lapses and would take action.

The IGP asserted that the victims’ family was satisfied with the action taken by the police, but his claims went for a toss with Harpreet’s father Dalbir Singh accusing the police of shielding the accused.

Accusing the police of distorting facts and tampering with the accident spot, Dalbir Singh alleged that the original spot was away from the place the police was showing as the accident spot. Further challenging the police theory, he alleged that in its investigation the police showed that the victims took a left turn from the roundabout before being hit by the car. However, they were going straight when they were knocked down, he stated.

A rare variety of snakes, which do not lay eggs and are stated to be a missing link between mammals and reptiles, today gave birth to 37 snakes in Mahendra Chaudhary Zoological Park.

Two female sand boa snakes were brought here from Ropar on the orders of a Ludhiana court.

The newly born have been kept away from their mothers and are being monitored by vets. Zoo officials said sand boa was a kind of rare breed of two-mouthed snake that never laid eggs.

Meanwhile, a team of experts from Central Zoo Authority (CZA) visited Chhatbir Zoo wherein they enquired about the viability of keeping elephants in the zoo. Earlier, the CZA had issued notices to all zoos in India for shifting of all elephants to national parks, sanctuaries and tiger reserves.

Chhatbir authorities told the visiting CZA authorities that there was sufficient space and congenial atmosphere for elephants. The CZA authorities were requested to inspect the zoo before taking any decision in this context.

The team that visited today comprised of CZA’s monetary evaluator Brijkishore Gupta and Suparna Ganguly from a Bangalore-based NGO. It is learnt that zoo authorities were impressed with facilities available for elephants.

Source: tribuneindia.com

Heavy rains that lashed the region led to landslides and disruption of traffic on various roads leading to Dharamsala today. The main road leading from Ranital to Kangra was blocked due to landslides at about 1 am at night. The traffic on the road remained stranded for about eight hours. This affected the supply of essential commodities to Kangra and Dharamsala towns.

The stranded commuters alleged inaction on the part of authorities. They alleged that though the traffic on the road was blocked in the middle of the night, no official came to the site for about eight hours. PWD officials arrived with JCB machine at about 9 am after which the road was opened for small vehicles.

The said road has become prone to landslides after it has been widened by cutting mountains surrounding it.

The landslides also blocked traffic on the Gaggal-Dharamsala road due to landslides. The authorities had to divert traffic to an alternative road.

Meanwhile, two pine trees fell on the main road near the Palampur bus stand. The traffic remained blocked on the main road in Palampur for hours before the trees were cut and removed.

The traffic was also blocked on the Palampur-Mandi National Highway due to landslide near Hotla.

Landslides also disrupted traffic at many places on the Pathankot-Kangra National Highway. According to sources, traffic was disrupted near Nurpur and Nagni Mata temple area due to landslides.

The heavy rains inundated local labour court office.

Heavy rains that lashed the region led to landslides and disruption of traffic on various roads leading to Dharamsala today. The main road leading from Ranital to Kangra was blocked due to landslides at about 1 am at night. The traffic on the road remained stranded for about eight hours. This affected the supply of essential commodities to Kangra and Dharamsala towns.

The stranded commuters alleged inaction on the part of authorities. They alleged that though the traffic on the road was blocked in the middle of the night, no official came to the site for about eight hours. PWD officials arrived with JCB machine at about 9 am after which the road was opened for small vehicles.

The said road has become prone to landslides after it has been widened by cutting mountains surrounding it.

The landslides also blocked traffic on the Gaggal-Dharamsala road due to landslides. The authorities had to divert traffic to an alternative road.

Meanwhile, two pine trees fell on the main road near the Palampur bus stand. The traffic remained blocked on the main road in Palampur for hours before the trees were cut and removed.

The traffic was also blocked on the Palampur-Mandi National Highway due to landslide near Hotla.

Landslides also disrupted traffic at many places on the Pathankot-Kangra National Highway. According to sources, traffic was disrupted near Nurpur and Nagni Mata temple area due to landslides.

The heavy rains inundated local labour court office.