From Thar to eternity



A concept hotel that cherishes and curates the essence of the destination is hard to come by, but Suryagarh more than fills that gap. In fact, it celebrates the Jaisalmer desert in every pore






 A Manganiyar folk musician performs beside Jazia Talao

"Nobody comes here.”
Nakul must have repeated that phrase so many times that it began to ring in my mind like a bell.
Winter, which brings the most tourists to Rajasthan, is a busy time for the manager of Suryagarh, a heritage-themed luxury boutique hotel only a few minutes' drive out of Jaisalmer towards the unending expanse of the Thar. Today, he is up early to off-road me and other journalists to the fringes of the great desert that bounds India's far west and Pakistan's far east, spanning a mosaic of landscapes and cultures so unique and diverse that the dialect is said to change every one hundred kilometres. While Jaisalmer city and its iconic Golden Fort are overrun by tourists and hippies, few travellers venture this far off the map. On our three-day sojourn in early December, we crossed paths with only a handful of other tourists (not including a troop of cyclists from Mumbai).
Nakul is right. Nobody ever came here. And that may be a good thing, for now. The great beauty of the Thar lies in its aloofness. It begs to be discovered with reverence, responsibility, and a tempered curiosity bereft of self-aggrandisement. That is the very experience that Suryagarh curates for its guests. Palatial and opulent, the fort-like hotel looms like a vision in the desert only a few minutes’ drive out of Jaisalmer.




 Driving through the Jaisalmer desert is a special joy

Suryagarh’s mission is to ensconce its guests in the warm embrace of the Thar. Every detail of the hotel draws from Rajasthan’s leitmotifs — from the latticed windows (jaalis) to the patterns on the floor, right down to the bath salts. On my second morning I can already feel the immensity of this vast-hearted Rajasthani hospitality. On my brief stay here I have feasted on so many facets of the Thar — its legends and architecture, cuisine and culture — that I am practically stuffed to the gills and overflowing with it. But all of this, it seems, was a lengthy appetiser. The pièce de résistance is yet to come.
This morning, we are out to discover the inspiration behind Suryagarh’s new Residences. I ask managing director Manvendra Singh Shekhawat for a sneak preview, but he smiles secretively.
“This evening,” he assures us, “you will be ready for them.” 




 The gateway to Suryagarh, Jaisalmer



 The Suryagarh crest adorns the main gate of the hotel

 Despite its monotone, the Thar is a vibrant country and, contrary to Bollywood-addled imagination, not made up entirely of rippled sand dunes. Against the loamy yellow sandstone, a ubiquitous building material, the bright fabrics and ornate jewellery worn by Rajasthani women make for a startling contrast. Gentle winds tug at bright magenta pallus, vermilion lehengas and parakeet-green blouses embroidered with tiny circular mirrors that wink back the mellow winter sun. The men mostly wear sallow white but their bright red and orange turbans glow like beacons on the dun canvas. Everything else — beast and bird — wears the sandy beige of the desert, a most appropriate camouflage.
Isabelline Wheatears (Oenanthe isabellina)— solitary brown passerine birds slightly larger than sparrows — take wing at our approach. A clod of earth shuffling in the shade of a bush turns out to be an Indian Desert Jird (Meriones hurrianae), a rodent with the endearing face of a squirrel and the ungainly tail of a rat. The horizon, corrugated by mirages, reveals the fluid shapes of chinkaras (Gazella bennettii). These elegant gazelles, also sand-coloured, watch with caution the vehicle invading their hitherto unmolested terrain. Ducking behind bushy Jaal trees (Salvador oleiodes) they disappear from sight.




 A chinkara in its beautiful natural habitat

It is past eleven in the morning but the desert air is flecked with the chill of the winter night — we were told that the temperature had dipped to 4 degrees Celsius at dawn. Peafowl call at Khaba Fort, an eyrie on a hillock from where we take in a commanding view of what was once an orderly habitation with squares and streets and cheek-by-jowl houses, now in crumbling ruins. Suryagarh guests valiant enough to wake at dawn are driven here to be treated to the hotel's signature Breakfast With Peacocks, where they nosh on mash and eggs and sip cognac as the magnificent birds peck at grain doled out by a boy with a bushel. Having gorged to bursting on a fulsome halwai breakfast only a few hours earlier, I am in no condition to eat (fellow traveller, travel writer Anurag Mallick warns our hosts pithily: 'There is a thin line between hospitality and hospitalisation').  





 Govardhans point the way to sources of water in the desert

To explore the ruins I descend a flight of steps to the village – about two hundred homes once inhabited by the enterprising Paliwal Brahmins, originally from Pali in central Rajasthan, who had moved west and settled in Jaisalmer. There are the remains of streets and temples, a village square and govardhans — carved pillar-like markers pointing to water sources in this unforgivingly arid landscape.



 A chhatri at the Paliwal village near Khaba fort

Not far from here lies the village of Kuldhara. Roughly two hundred years ago, the Paliwals, tyrannised by the debauchery of Salim Singh, prime minister to Maharawal Mulraj, fled Kuldhara and flung a curse upon it that nobody would live here any more. At least, that is the more popular version of the story; it could well be that Salim Singh levied taxes so burdensome on the prosperous Paliwal Brahmins that they had no option but to flee. Either way, their villages, numbering about 84 in all, were never reinhabited.
Though not a single living Paliwal Brahmin of that lineage remains here today, the land abounds in relics of their resourceful ingenuity. Besides the architecture of their structures, which used locally sourced yellow sandstone and virtually no cementing mixture (the stone pillars, for instance, employed interlocking joints that, over time, fused under gravitational pressure), their agrarian practices continue to benefit the desert communities.
Khadeen, a system of rainwater harvesting, makes use of bunds and earthen embankments to collect and farm runoff water. Crops are cultivated in cycles on the flooded land until the water evaporates completely. Every caste of village-folk exercised a share in the fair use of these resources. Khadeens, which are similar to the water-harvesting practices of the Nabateans and the Sumerian civilization of Ur dating back to 4500 BC, have a local antiquity of about 700 years. 




 Cenotaphs of the Paliwal Brahmins in the Jaisalmer desert.





 Khadeens are ancient water-harvesting systems in the desert

We stop next at a cremation ground of the Paliwals. The cenotaphs here lie in ruins, weathered by time and neglect, and pillaged by souvenir-hunters. "Come back here after a month and you'll see that a few more of these stones are missing," says Manvendra. Among the broken chhatris are headstones depicting Phoenicians and Egyptians, we are informed.
How did they get here? The answer lies in history, some of it buried in legend. So entwined are they in folklore that it’s hard to prise them apart. 




 The incredible living fort - Jaisalmer's Golden Fort

Fact is that Jaisalmer of yore was a stop on one of the southern Silk Roads, which brought caravans from Central Asia. Founded by Maharawal Jaisal in the 12th century, this western Rajput princely state thrived on taxes collected from the caravans passing the desert en route to Osian and Leh towards China. It was when seaports opened on the western coast in Gujarat, and later Bombay (today’s Mumbai), that Jaisalmer's fortunes declined and the regal desert-state was reduced to a feudatory of successive masters in the Mughals, the Marathas and the British.
Today, Jaisalmer’s richness shines in its legends and leitmotifs, in its music and folk art. The local people, though, grumble that the western district gets only a fraction of the attention and funds that are flushed by the state government into developing tourism in Jodhpur, Udaipur and Jaipur. 




 A Manganiyar folk singer performs beside Jaziya Talao

Over lunch, we ruminate on how much tourism is too much for Jaisalmer to handle. We are sitting in the sagacious shade of a time-honoured Khejri tree (Prosopis cineraria) beside a rippling eye of water in the desert. Jaziya Talao is one of the few oases that retain water even in the most unforgiving summer and, naturally, it is the lifeline of this land. As water tankers line up on its shore, sandpipers and lapwings tiptoe in the moist clay of its banks. Bulbuls and warblers chitter in the matted canopy of the gnarled Khejri. As wine is served to accompany the freshly grilled meats that arrive in an unending procession, a Manganiyar folk singer in a bright red turban begins to play a heartrending melody on his algoza and then regales us with folk songs about valour and love, before slyly tucking in a reference to sharab (liquor). 




 Drinking from the sweetwater wells of Mundhari is a rare pleasure


Life is languidly generous, but we have a taste of generosity far deeper when we visit the Bhil people in a remote nook of the scrub desert. It is sundown, and we have just reached here after drinking unbelievably sweet water from the wells of Mundhari and visiting the magnificent expanse of Joshida Talao. The nomadic Bhils, who are shepherds, practise no agriculture and live in semi-permanent settlements called dhanis. They have no electricity but I notice a solar charger firing up a mobile phone. As the light wanes, the goats bleat to their kids who, in unison, rush to their mothers’ udders for a bedtime suckle. We are about to leave when the mother of the house calls to us, inviting us to stay for dinner. We are a group of seven people with ravenous appetites but her eyes shine with kindness true and sincere. We decline politely, bid the Bhils goodbye, and return fuller of heart. 



 Reverence expressed at Joshida Talao near Jaisalmer



 The cenotaphs appear eerie at night, on the Chudail Trail


This desert, which by day appears warm and welcoming, benign and forlorn, transforms into a different creature after sundown. We had a taste of that the night before. It started over dinner when Manvendra and Nakul began to relate ghost stories. One was about a mysterious hitchhiker who flagged down a biker asking for a lift. Halfway through the ride, the rider looked in his rear-view mirror and saw the pillion seat was empty. He turned around only to confirm his fears. More tales followed, each more bone-chilling than the last, until we were eventually on the subject of chudails, female demons with inverted feet that are believed to wander the night thirsting for the blood of human males. Local people aver that they are the spirits of women who suffered brutal deaths at the hands of men and their dark minds seethe with sex and revenge. Ironic how misogyny doesn’t tarnish even in the afterlife.
Close to midnight, stuffed with dinner and slightly tipsy from our cocktails, we were driven out into the desert to experience Suryagarh’s signature Chudail Trail. The chudails of Kuldhara are thought to be particularly bloodthirsty as they still nurse the scars of Salim Singh's misdeeds. Off-roading in darkness was an edge-of-the-seat experience and no one spoke a word as we bumped around the desert. In biting cold, we arrived at the haunted village of Kuldhara and were shown to sites where legend holds that the bodies of Salim Singh’s victims were found. We stopped at the cenotaphs that had seemed so fascinating by daylight, peering at headstones gingerly in the cold glare of the SUV’s headlamps. As one of the ladies in our group stepped back, something cracked underfoot and she yelped in alarm. A hyena sniggered in the scrub jungle. With a great thrashing of wings, a large white bird darted out of a tree. Pale with shock and struggling to hold our bladders, we returned to the hotel. I slept with the light on. 



 A view of the Residences at Suryagarh, Jaisalmer



 Interiors of one of the Residences


In the evening Manvendra keeps his promise. We are shown to the Residences, private suites set apart from the main hotel that enshrine the values of community living while maintaining an excellently devised sense of exclusivity and privacy. What we see here is dazzling. Not only has the architect drawn inspiration from the villages of Kuldhara in styling the yellow sandstone edifices, the ambience is a crystallisation of the experiences we have enjoyed over the last two days. Every handcrafted detail, every motif, has been inspired by the glorious Thar. In a final touch, each of the four Residences is named after the karigar, or chief mason, who supervised its construction.
This night in Suryagarh feels like Diwali. Illuminated like a palace of gods, every detail of the hotel’s magnificence springs to vibrant life. Nodding to the plaintively beautiful music of the Manganiyars, we dine in the open on wild rabbit and quail, sipping shots of local liqueur and huddling close to the sigris (coal braziers) that keep us warm. 




 The delicious Jaisalmer Ghotwa is worth going back for.
On my way out the next morning, I sigh with dismay for having forgotten to buy some Jaisalmer Ghotwa, a delectable sweet of roasted gram flour that I had enjoyed at the halwai breakfast. Nakul eavesdrops on my plaint and promptly presses into my hands a little box containing exactly that. Touched, I remark at his memory.
“The desert remembers,” he says, reiterating Suryagarh’s mission. It’s a parting remark I shall never forget.






 Tasteful, opulent interiors at Suryagarh

TRAVEL INFORMATION
Jaisalmer lies to the west of Rajasthan, four hours’ drive from the nearest airport, Jodhpur, which has daily connections to Delhi and Mumbai. Suryagarh is another 15 minutes’ drive from the city.





 


2015 World Press Photo Contest winners unveiled_Part_1

The jury of the 58th annual World Press Photo Contest has selected an image by Danish photographer Mads Nissen as the World Press Photo of the Year 2014. Nissen is a staff photographer for the Danish daily newspaper Politiken and is represented by Panos Pictures. The picture shows Jon and Alex, a gay couple, during an intimate moment in St Petersburg, Russia. Life for lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) people is becoming increasingly difficult in Russia. Sexual minorities face legal and social discrimination, harassment, and even violent hate-crime attacks from conservative religious and nationalistic groups. The winning picture is part of a larger project by Nissen called “Homophobia in Russia” which was shot for Scanpix.
The photo also won 1st Prize in the Contemporary Issues category.
Here's a look at some of the winning photographs.

 World Press Photo of the Year 2014
First Prize Contemporary Issues, Singles
Mads Nissen, Denmark, Scanpix/Panos Pictures
St. Petersburg, Russia
Caption: Jon and Alex, a gay couple, during an intimate moment.
Life for lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) people is becoming increasingly difficult in Russia. Sexual minorities face legal and social discrimination, harassment, and even violent hate-crime attacks from conservative religious and nationalistic groups.


 First Prize Portraits Category, Singles
Raphaela Rosella, Australia, Oculi
Moree, New South Wales, Australia
Caption: Laurinda waits in her purple dress for the bus that will take her to Sunday School. She is among the many socially isolated young women in disadvantaged communities in Australia facing entrenched poverty, racism, trans-generational trauma, violence, addiction, and a range of other barriers to health and well-being.


 Second Prize Daily Life Category, Singles
Åsa Sjöström, Sweden, Moment Agency / INSTITUTE for Socionomen / UNICEF
Baroncea, Moldova
Caption: Igor hands out chocolates to a classmate to celebrate his ninth birthday. When he and his twin brother Arthur were two years old, their mother traveled to Moscow to work in the construction field and later died. They have no father. They are among thousands of children growing up without their parents in the Moldovan countryside. Young people have fled the country, leaving a dwindling elderly population and young children.


 Second Prize Daily Life Category, Stories
Sarker Protick, Bangladesh
Caption: John wears his grandson’s bowler hat
Story: It was in the afternoon. I was sitting on my grandpa’s couch. The door was slightly open, and I saw light coming through, washed out between the white door and white walls. All of a sudden it all started making sense. I could relate what I was seeing with what I felt. John and Prova, my grandparents. Growing up, I found much love and care from them. They were young and strong.
As time went by, it shaped everything in its own way. Bodies took different forms and relations went distant. Grandma’s hair turned gray, the walls started peeling off and the objects were all that remained. Everything was contained into one single room. They always love the fact that I take pictures of them because then I spend more time with them, and they don’t feel lonely anymore. After Prova passed away, I try to visit more so John can talk. He tells me stories of their early life, and how they met. There are so many stories. Here, life is silent, suspended. Everything is on a wait; A wait for something that I don’t completely understand.


 First Prize General News Category, Singles
Sergei Ilnitsky, Russia, European Pressphoto Agency
26 August, Donetsk, Ukraine
Caption: Damaged goods lie in a kitchen in downtown Donetsk. Ordinary workers, miners, teachers, pensioners, children, and elderly women and men are in the midst of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Artillery fire killed three people and wounded 10 on 26 August 2014.


 Second Prize Contemporary Issues Category, Singles
Ronghui Chen, China, City Express
Yiwu, China
Caption: Wei, a 19-year-old Chinese worker, wearing a face mask and a Santa hat, stands next to Christmas decorations being dried in a factory as red powder used for coloring hovers in the air. He wears six masks a day and the hat protects his hair from the red dust, which covers workers from head to toe like soot after several hours of work.


 Second Prize Sports Category, Singles
Al Bello, USA, Getty Images
East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA
Odell Beckham (#13) of the New York Giants makes a one-handed touchdown catch in the second quarter against the Dallas Cowboys at MetLife Stadium.


 Third Prize Portraits Category, Stories
Paolo Verzone, Italy, Agence Vu
Breda, The Netherlands
Cadet in the Koninklijke Militaire Academie
Story:Portraits of cadets from the most important military academies of Europe.


 First Prize Nature Category, Stories
Anand Varma, USA, for National Geographic Magazine
Caption: When spores of the fungus land on an ant, they penetrate its exoskeleton and enter its brain, compelling the host to leave its normal habitat on the forest floor and scale a nearby tree. Filled to bursting with fungus, the dying ant fastens itself to a leaf or another surface. Fungal stalks burst from the ant's husk and rain spores onto ants below to begin the process again.



 Third Prize Contemporary Issues Category, Stories
Tomas van Houtryve, Belgium, VII for Harper’s Magazine
El Dorado County, California, United States
Caption: Students in a schoolyard.
Story: Several thousand people have been killed by covert U.S. drone strikes since 2004. The photographer bought his own drone, mounted a camera and traveled across the US looking for similar situations as mentioned in strike reports from Pakistan and Yemen, including weddings, funerals, and groups of people praying or exercising. He also flew his camera over settings in which drones are used to less lethal effect, such as prisons, oil fields and the U.S.-Mexico border.

The year South Africa betrayed the rhino_Part_3_Last



Soon, we might say rhinoceros the way we say dinosaur.
In South Africa, over 1,200 rhinos were killed in 2014 alone, feeding the illegal trade in rhino horn. The official number is pegged at 1215, which is a 21% increase over 2013, National Geographic reported.
High demand for rhino horn continues unabated in China and Vietnam, where the wildlife contraband is coveted by traditional medicine-makers as an ingredient in preparing aphrodisiacs. It’s another thing that there is nothing special or magical about the horns, scientifically speaking. They are composed of keratin, the same material that is found in human hair and nails.
South Africa is home to an estimated 18,000 white rhinos and about 1,800 black rhinos. The names black and white are misnomers, in fact, for the animals are distinguished by the shape of their upper lips. The white rhino might be better known as the square-lipped rhino and the black rhino as the hook-lipped rhino.
Tragically, most rhinos poached in South Africa in 2014 were killed in Kruger National Park, supposedly a fortress for wildlife. The reason for this, experts believe, is the porous border the park, in the north of the country, shares with Mozambique, a poorer nation than South Africa. From 10 to 15 animals killed every year in 2007, the clock is clearly ticking for the rhino.
These photos (credit: AFP) tell the tale of the rhino’s march to a grim future. 






 Kruger National Park staff walk near the carcass of a three-day-old rhinoceros killed by poachers at Houtboschrand in the southern part of Kruger National Park, northeastern South Africa, on November 27, 2013. South African conservation authorities on November 26 said they aim to reduce rhino poaching by 20 percent a year, insisting their strategy is working despite record levels of poaching. "The war against poaching is not yet won, but we can reduce the figures... it's an ongoing process," said Major General Johan Jooste, who heads the Kruger National Park anti-poaching task team.





 Kobus De Wet, an environmental crime investigator, walks past the carcass of a three-day-old rhinoceros killed by poachers at Houtboschrand in the southern part of Kruger National Park, northeastern South Africa, on November 27, 2013. South African conservation authorities on November 26 said they aim to reduce rhino poaching by 20 percent a year, insisting their strategy is working despite record levels of poaching. "The war against poaching is not yet won, but we can reduce the figures... it's an ongoing process," said Major General Johan Jooste, who heads the Kruger National Park anti-poaching task team. 





 The carcass of a poached and mutilated white rhino lies on the banks of a river as a South African Police Services forensic investigator works on the crime scene on September 12, 2014 at Kruger National Park. As investigators comb a scene of a dehorned rhino in South Africa's Kruger National Park, its horn is likely to have already been smuggled out of the country to Asia, highlighting the extent of organised poaching cartels threatening the endangered species. 





 An helicopter takes off from as the carcass of a poached and mutilated white rhino is seen laying on the banks of a river at Kruger National Park during a forensic investigation on September 12, 2014. As investigators comb a scene of a dehorned rhino in South Africa's Kruger National Park, its horn is likely to have already been smuggled out of the country to Asia, highlighting the extent of organised poaching cartels threatening the endangered species. 





 An helicopter takes off from as the carcass of a poached and mutilated white rhino is seen laying on the banks of a river at Kruger National Park during a forensic investigation on September 12, 2014. As investigators comb a scene of a dehorned rhino in South Africa's Kruger National Park, its horn is likely to have already been smuggled out of the country to Asia, highlighting the extent of organised poaching cartels threatening the endangered species. 





 Dr Marius Kruger (C) and member of the Kruger National Park keeps the head of a rhino up during a white rhino relocation capture on October 17, 2014. The Kruger National Park relocated four rhinoceros from a high risk poaching area to a safer area as part of ongoing strategic rhinoceros management plan. 





 A male white rhinoceros shows off his territury to another male at a game farm in Malelane 30 September 2004. South Africa will ask the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) at a meeting in Bangkok, starting 02 October 2004, to be granted an annual hunting quota of 10 black rhinoceros. There are about 3,600 wild black rhinos in the world. 





 A black male rhinoceros is seen at a game farm in Malelane 30 September 2004. South Africa will ask the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) at a meeting that opened 02 October 2004 in Bangkok to be granted an annual hunting quota of 10 black rhinos. There are about 3,600 wild black rhinos in the world and South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Namibia -- which will ask for permission to hunt five rhinos per year at CITES -- are home to most of them.





 A black male rhinoceros is seen at a game farm in Malelane 30 September 2004. South Africa will ask the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) at a meeting that opened 02 October 2004 in Bangkok to be granted an annual hunting quota of 10 black rhinos. There are about 3,600 wild black rhinos in the world and South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Namibia -- which will ask for permission to hunt five rhinos per year at CITES -- are home to most of them.








 A black male rhinoceros is seen at a game farm in Malelane 30 September 2004. South Africa will ask the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) at a meeting that opened 02 October 2004 in Bangkok to be granted an annual hunting quota of 10 black rhinos. There are about 3,600 wild black rhinos in the world and South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Namibia -- which will ask for permission to hunt five rhinos per year at CITES -- are home to most of them.


 


Kolkata rings in Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year was celebrated on February 19th, 2015, According to Chinese astrology, each year is associated with an animal sign, in a rotational 12-year cycle. 2015 is the year of the Goat, a personality that is calm, gentle, creative, honest and perseverant.
Chinese New Year is traditionally knowns as Spring Festival, the most important celebration for families in China. The date is based on the Lunar calendar and varies from year to year, but wherever people are, they reunite with their families to celebrate the festival together.
Chinese New Year is celebrated with fireworks, dragon dances and temple fairs. Chinese snacks are in abundance. Fish is believe to bring good luck, and is usually on the festival menu. Dumpling, spring rolls and rice cakes are also commonly served, to bring wealth and prosperity. Gifts of money are exchanged in red envelopes.
In India, Kolkata's Chinese community celebrates with the festival with gusto. Here's a peek at Chinese New Year celebrations in Kolkata through the years.

 Members of the Chinese community perform a lion dance as they celebrate the Chinese New Year in Kolkata on January 31, 2014. Chinese communities worldwide are welcoming the 'Year of the Horse'. 

 Members of the Chinese community perform a lion dance as they celebrate the Chinese New Year in Kolkata on January 31, 2014. Chinese communities worldwide are welcoming the 'Year of the Horse'. 

 Members of the chinese community perform a Lion dance as they celebrate the Chinese New Year in Kolkata, on January 23, 2012. China is welcoming the year of the dragon, a symbol considered to be particularly auspicious because it is the only mythical creature among the dozen animals that represent each year in the Chinese cosmic cycle. 

 Members of the chinese community perform a Lion dance as they celebrate the Chinese New Year in Kolkata, on January 23, 2012. China is welcoming the year of the dragon, a symbol considered to be particularly auspicious because it is the only mythical creature among the dozen animals that represent each year in the Chinese cosmic cycle. 

 A member of the Chinese community is pictured in a lion dance costume as they celebrate the Chinese New Year in Kolkata on February 10, 2013. Chinese communities worldwide are welcoming the 'Year of the Snake'.
 Members of the Chinese community perform a lion dance as they celebrate the Chinese New Year in Kolkata on February 10, 2013. Chinese communities worldwide are welcoming the 'Year of the Snake'. 

Members of the Chinese community prepare to perform a lion dance as they celebrate the Chinese New Year in Kolkata on February 10, 2013. Chinese communities worldwide are welcoming the 'Year of the Snake'.
 

The year South Africa betrayed the rhino_Part_2







 Two white rhinoceros walk in Limpopo on March 12, 2012 near the new site of a Rhinoceros orphanage yet to be built. The centre will take in baby rhinoceroses orphaned or injured by poachers. Rhinos will be wiped out from South Africa's wildlife parks by 2015 if poaching continues at its current rate, a campaigner fighting to save the beasts has warned. 







 An adult white rhino looks on at the Entabeni Safari Conservancy, Limpopo, 300 kms north east of Johannesburg on July 31, 2012. Entabeni is one of the world's only dedicated orphanages for rhino calves whose parents were poached for their horns.The conservancy specially designed and built four high-care rooms and one intensive care chamber where sick calves can receive 24-hour attention. These include an incubator, drips and surveillance cameras. Almost 300 rhinos have been poached in South Africa since the start of the year, and in 2011, 448 were killed. The country's seen a huge rise in poaching in the last few years, as black market demand for rhino horn soars.







 A black dehorned rhinoceros walks on August 3, 2012 at the Bona Bona Game Reseve, 200 kms southeast of Johannesburg. South Africa has seen a devastating increase in poaching in recent years as black-market demand for rhino horn has grown. Last year poachers killed 448 rhinos, up from 333 in 2010 and just 13 in 2007. Heightened security measures have failed to stop the criminal syndicates that officials say are responsible for the killing. The animals' distinctive horns are hacked off to be smuggled to the lucrative Asian black market, where the fingernail-like substance is falsely believed to have powerful healing properties.







 A black dehorned rhinoceros walks on August 3, 2012 at the Bona Bona Game Reseve, 200 kms southeast of Johannesburg. South Africa has seen a devastating increase in poaching in recent years as black-market demand for rhino horn has grown. Last year poachers killed 448 rhinos, up from 333 in 2010 and just 13 in 2007. Heightened security measures have failed to stop the criminal syndicates that officials say are responsible for the killing. The animals' distinctive horns are hacked off to be smuggled to the lucrative Asian black market, where the fingernail-like substance is falsely believed to have powerful healing properties.







 A black dehorned rhinoceros walks on August 3, 2012 at the Bona Bona Game Reseve, 200 kms southeast of Johannesburg. South Africa has seen a devastating increase in poaching in recent years as black-market demand for rhino horn has grown. Last year poachers killed 448 rhinos, up from 333 in 2010 and just 13 in 2007. Heightened security measures have failed to stop the criminal syndicates that officials say are responsible for the killing. The animals' distinctive horns are hacked off to be smuggled to the lucrative Asian black market, where the fingernail-like substance is falsely believed to have powerful healing properties. 







 French Damien Vergnaud poses next to a sign warning poachers that rhino horns have been poisoned on March 22, 2013 at his private game reserve in Inverdoom, 200 kms north east of Cape Town. Vergnaud runs a breeding programme for cheetahs and he has organised an armed security guard to protect his rhinos from poaching.






 A picture taken on March 23, 2013 shows a rhino at the private game reserve of French Damien Vergnaud in Inverdoom, 200 kms north east of Cape Town. Vergnaud runs a breeding programme for cheetahs and he has organised an armed security guard to protect his rhinos from poaching. 






 A picture taken on March 23, 2013 shows a rhino at the private game reserve of French Damien Vergnaud in Inverdoom, 200 kms north east of Cape Town. Vergnaud runs a breeding programme for cheetahs and he has organised an armed security guard to protect his rhinos from poaching.







 This picture taken on July 25, 2013 shows two white rhinos at Johannesburg Zoo. A total of 515 rhinos have been killed so far this year in South Africa. Last year, 668 rhinos were killed in South Africa, a record high that could be surpassed if the poaching continues at today's pace.The lucrative Asian black market for rhino horn has driven a boom in poaching in South Africa, which has the largest rhino population in the world. Many of the killings are thought to be perpetrated by poachers from global syndicates.The army's deployment in the hardest-hit area, the Kruger National Park, has done little to stem the killings. 







This picture taken on July 25, 2013 shows a white rhino at the Johannesburg Zoo. A total of 515 rhinos have been killed so far this year in South Africa. Last year, 668 rhinos were killed in South Africa, a record high that could be surpassed if the poaching continues at today's pace.The lucrative Asian black market for rhino horn has driven a boom in poaching in South Africa, which has the largest rhino population in the world. Many of the killings are thought to be perpetrated by poachers from global syndicates.The army's deployment in the hardest-hit area, the Kruger National Park, has done little to stem the killings.





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