INDIA: Seashells Are A Hot Cake

Harvesting seashells for crafts and souvenirs is a large-scale industry that involves many species. These conch, triton, and helmet shells are for sale at a souvenir stand in Turks and Caicos.

In the coastal town of Kanyakumari, in southern India, mountains of newly harvested mollusk shells living animals still inside them lie drying out near a sun-drenched beach.

Next up for these seashells: a dunking for a few hours in large vats of oil and acid to clean them. Any remaining flesh or scaly growth is then scraped off each shell by hand by one of hundreds of local workers, and they’re given another soaking in oil.

After a final hand-polishing, many are shipped to artisans in nearby towns who craft jewelry and other mementos to sell to tourists. The remaining shells are destined for elsewhere in India and abroad.

For many of the species found here, this industry is illegal under Indian law.

A witness says the mass collection and processing of mollusks in Kanyakumari firsthand in 2014, it’s cruel because the shells are very much alive.

The witness who visited Kanyakumari for his thesis project, which started as an inquiry into the livelihood of shell artisans and morphed into what he calls a framework for a movement against the exploitation and mindless destruction of marine life.

The witness had expected to speak with a few artisans and learn about their craft but was flabbergasted by what he saw.

A factory worker showed him around a processing center and a massive open warehouse with high gates and security.

As soon as we opened those tall gates, I could see truckloads, heap after heap of seashells everywhere as far as the eye could see and that really put things into perspective for me, he explains. That’s when the scale of this hit me in the face.

One worker told him that his facility processes anywhere from 30 to 100 tons of shells a month, and and the witness says, several other such facilities exist in southern India.

The dozens of shell species they handle range from the spider conch, a curved shell with long protrusions resembling spider legs, to the green turban, with its swirling emerald, white, and brown vertical layers.

Both species are listed under India’s Wildlife Protection Act and therefore illegal to harvest in the country.

The shells are packaged by the kilogram and sold to craftsmen as raw material for souvenirs and other handicraft products.

The supply chain varies from town to town. For example, shells may move from a factory in Kanyakumari to an artisan’s home or shop nearby.

In the case of less touristy towns such as Rameshwaram, he says, larger processing factories send their shells to middlemen who sell them to artisans in places like Kanyakumari.

Shells from Rameshwaram are also exported overseas or to larger Indian cities such as Vizag and Mumbai.

At least 50,000 mollusk species inhabit the Earth. Whereas some shells are harvested for their meat, others—like the chambered nautilus, known for its beautiful, coiled multi-colored protective casings—are collected solely for decorative purposes.

India is by no means the only major supplier. Local news reports from GMA News Online in the Philippines describe similar processes there for harvesting, cleaning, and distributing shells. Shells are also exploited commercially in Indonesia and throughout the Caribbean, among other places.

Only a few species, notably the queen conch, which can grow to a foot in length, the chambered nautilus, the giant clam, and a few species of snails—are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the body that regulates the global wildlife trade.

To trade these species, importers must obtain a permit from the country of origin, which is registered in an international database. In addition, CITES requires that source countries set fishing quotas to ensure that trade in these species is sustainable.

Like India, a number of other countries have implemented their own policies to protect marine mollusks.

Despite these measures, according to a 2016 study by Defenders of Wildlife, a U.S.-based nonprofit, mollusk shells are one of the most heavily confiscated wildlife products at U.S. ports of entry.

Between 2005 and 2014, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents confiscated 77 different types of wildlife products, and shells, with more than half a million seized, appeared in the top five.

Mollusk-derived shell products accounted for about 42 percent of all items. Failure to obtain an import permit—or attempting to import more items than allowed by a permit is a common reason for confiscation.

More than 90 percent of shell products seized by the Fish and Wildlife Service during that period were sourced from the wild, and nearly 99 percent were intended for commercial purposes. The Service defines the import of eight or more items to be commercial.

The queen conch—with its spiral, shiny pink and orange or cream shell that can measure up to foot long is one of the most recognizable protected mollusks.

According to a 2016 Defenders of Wildlife fact sheet, queen conches with no paperwork or improper paperwork accounted for more than 90 percent of all shells from Latin America that were confiscated by the Fish and Wildlife Service between 2005 and 2014.

Undocumented trade on such a scale, Goyenechea says, has the potential to put wild populations in jeopardy.

There’s an impact on the environment—it’s not the same to bring two shells as 1,000 shells, she says. When those myriad shells used for jewelry and decorative items like lamps and picture frames had living animals inside them in the ocean

They served a variety of ecological roles, including providing an anchorage for epiobonts like algae that provide food for marine life and for filter-feeding barnacles, which help clean the water.

The queen conch plays an important role in its ecosystem by helping cleanse the Caribbean’s waters and providing food for animals like the loggerhead sea turtle and nurse shark. Not to mention that scientists consider mollusks to be excellent indicators of overall ecosystem health.

Like any exploitation of the natural world, if you take out more from the environment than is sustainable, then that environment and the ecosystem collapse,says Neil Garrick-Maidment, executive director of The Seahorse Trust, an England-based nonprofit that has been working to bring awareness about the ill effects of the marine curio trade since 2015.

Shell fishermen in India often use a fishing technique similar to bottom trawling, which involves dragging a large net along the seafloor. When this is done, according to the Oceana, living habitat in its path is crushed, ripped up, or smothered as the seabed is turned over.

It’s unclear how widespread bottom trawling is in the global mollusk fishing industry.

The chambered nautilus, native to the South Pacific, is probably the mollusk most affected by the shell trade.

Little is known about this species, which was given CITES protection only as recently as 2017 and is especially vulnerable because unlike, say, giant clams, nautiluses can’t be bred in captivity to replenish diminishing wild populations.

According to a 2016 study by TRAFFIC and the World Wildlife Fund, global trafficking in nautiluses is still rampant. The study notes that the illegal trade has shifted from shops openly displaying them to Internet sales, which are harder to monitor and control.

The study also identifies the policing of the chambered nautilus trade in China, the Philippines, and Indonesia as a particular challenge.

CITES is only as strong as its member countries’ ability to enforce its protections says U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Laury Parramore, adding that the Service works with foreign governments and other partners to build expertise, knowledge, and resources to properly implement CITES.

In India, the Wildlife Protection Act aims to safeguard a handful of increasingly rare mollusk species, such as the scorpion conch and the trapezium horse conch.

Enforcement is haphazard, and protected shells are sold openly on beaches to consumers and artisans, while others are exported across the globe.

Lack of information makes it harder for officials to stop the trade in even the endangered shell varieties. This is compounded by the fact that port authorities don't really understand or acknowledge this as a problem. To them it's just raw material.

Identifying mollusk species is one of the toughest challenges in policing the international trade in seashells.

During the customs process, importers often simply list their goods as shells, and the few inspectors at most ports of entry are expert enough to identify protected species.

The 2016 TRAFFIC and World Wildlife Fund study, which focused on nautilus shells, backs up this assertion. It notes that in Europe, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, shells have the same species or genus customs codes as coral and other mollusks, crustaceans, and echinoderms and that monitoring the mollusk trade in this case nautilus shells, isn’t a priority for authorities.

The absence of customs codes to track international trade, and the absence of market measures to ensure that the trade is legal mask the overall volume of harvest and trade that is occurring.

30,000 to 40,000 people in the Kanyakumari region are involved in the shell business.

Securing funding for less flashy wildlife species is very difficult. Mollusks and other marine curios like seahorses don’t have the same appeal as elephants, tigers, and pandas, as a result, it’s therefore hard to get those in power to take notice.

What’s crucially needed is to reduce demand for decorative shells and other trinkets by spreading awareness among consumers of the dangers of over exploiting mollusks.

This goes beyond just one animal or one species. It’s just about being aware of what it takes for a natural resource to be pulled out from its habitat only to end up inside a living room, especially if the exploitation is based on unchecked and unethical practices just so you can buy an object from a shop.

People who want to buy shell products ask shop owners where they came from. If an item’s origin isn’t known, she urges not buying it.

I think that one of the most important things is people don’t have information about where the product is actually coming from and how it might be harming the species and the environment.

People may mistakenly think that someone just gathered shells lying on a beach, rather than that they’d been obtained as part of an industrial-scale enterprise.

Wildlife belongs in the wild.


Tourism Observer

AZERBAIJAN: Tourists Frequent Azerbaijan

Gabala, which is located about 225 km away from the capital city of Azerbaijan, is a perfect place for rest and tourism.

The weather here is mild in spring and autumn, hot in summer and cold in winter. In addition to marvelous weather, Gabala suggests gorgeous historical monuments, which emerge all around the city and its vicinity.

The city of Sheki is located 380 km to the west of Baku close to Georgian border.

Sheki is set in a picturesque mountain area rich in narrow gorges and green valleys, springs, purest rivers, water falls and mineral water springs framed by dense woods and alpine meadows.

Not far from Sheki in one of the most beautiful and picturesque places of the country is the Markhal Resort

Baku is so rich in attractions that one can easily spend three days walking around the city and might find it not enough to enjoy all beauties of this Caucasian city.

It usually takes two more days to see the landmarks in the surroundings of the capital.

Baku is a wonderful city on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Centuries-long history is reflected in its medieval landmarks, where the special place is given to the Old city called Icheri Sheher.

On the other hand, it is a fast-growing megapolis with glittering skyscrapers and unusual architectural monuments of the 21st century. Oriental past and hi tech future is entwined in the way that it gives an impression of taking a journey through time.

The biggest attraction of Baku is Primorskiy Bulvar (boulevard) that stretches many kilometers along the shores of the Caspian Sea.

It is one of the beloved spots of city dwellers and tourists because of picturesque alleys with trees and fountains, as well as numerous cafes and restaurants.

In addition to this, from the Primorskiy Bulvar you can get to the Nagorniy Park where you will get a breathtaking view of the city.

There are different kinds of attractions in the surroundings of Baku as well. The most ancient one is the Gobustan Museum of Petroglyphs not far from another landmark mud volcanoes.

Another interesting touristy spots are fire monuments, flaming hill of Yanardag and temple of fire worshippers Ateshgyah.

If you take a chane to travel Baku vicinities, don’t miss a chance to see the historical-ethnographic museum of Gala.


Tourism Observer

IRAN: Imam Reza Shrine In Mashhad

The Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Iran is a complex which contains the mausoleum of Imam Reza, the eighth Imam of Twelver Shiites.

It is the largest mosque in the world by area. Also contained within the complex are the Goharshad Mosque, a museum, a library, four seminaries, a cemetery, the Razavi University of Islamic Sciences, a dining hall for pilgrims, vast prayer halls, and other buildings.

The complex is one of the tourism centers in Iran and has been described as the heart of the Shia Iran, with 12 million Iranian and non-Iranian Shias visiting the shrine each year, according to a 2007 estimate.

The complex is managed by Astan Quds Razavi Foundation currently headed by a prominent Iranian cleric, Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi.

The shrine itself covers an area of 267,079m2 while the seven courtyards which surround it cover an area of 331,578m2 – totaling 598,657 m2 (6,443,890 sq ft).

Every year the ceremony of Dust Clearing is celebrated in the Imam Reza shrine.

Dar-ul-Imarah (Royal Residence) or the garden of Humayd ibn Qahtaba al-Ta’i was a fortress in the village of Sanabad.

It dates back to the era before the Islam religion. It had been placed at the fork road of Sanabad, Neishabour, Sarakhs, Toos and Radkan.

In fact, this fortress has been a place for the frontier guards to take position and establish the security of these roads and regions.

After the demise of Harun al-Rashid, he was buried in this place. Due to this historical event, the Dar-ul-Imarah was known as the Mausoleum of Haruniyyeh.

The original inner building of Dar-ul-Imarah has been in fact a temple used by the Zoroastrians to worship. This building was demolished by the order of al-Ma’mun, and then it was reconstructed according to the special architecture of Khorasan.

Four plain and short walls, covered with a low-slope dome, were constructed around the building. Afterwards, the name of the mausoleum Haruniyyeh was changed and known as the Mashhad-ur-Reza, due to the Holy Imam. Mashhad literally means a place where a martyr has been buried.

In 818, Imam Ali al-Ridha was murdered by the Abbasid caliph al-Ma’mun (ruled 813–833) and was buried beside the grave of al-Ma’mun’s father, Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809).

After this event, the location was called as Mashhad al-Ridha meaning the place of martyrdom of al-Ridha.

Shias and Sunnis began visiting his grave on pilgrimage. By the end of the 9th century a dome was built on the grave and many buildings and bazaars sprang up around it. For the next thousand years, it has been devastated and reconstructed several times.

The celebrated Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta visited Mashhad in 1333 and reported that it was a large town with abundant fruit trees, streams and mills.

A great dome of elegant construction surmounts the noble mausoleum, the walls being decorated with colored tiles.

Opposite the tomb of the Imam is the tomb of Caliph Harun al-Rashid, which is surmounted by a platform bearing chandeliers.

However, the tomb of Harun al-Rashid is not considered sacred, as he was responsible for the murders of the 6th and 7th Shia Imams.

By the end of the third Hijri century, a dome was built on the grave of Imam Reza and many buildings and bazaars sprang around the holy shrine.

In 383 A.H. / 993 A.D., Sebuktigin, the Ghaznevid sultan devastated Mashhad and stopped the pilgrims from visiting the holy shrine of Imam Reza.

But in 400 A.H./ 1009 A.D., Mahmud of Ghazni (born 971, ruled, 998-1030 A.D.,) started the expansion and renovation of the holy shrine and built many fortifications around the city.


Tourism Observer

JAPAN: Japan’s First Female Fighter Pilot O The Air Self-Defence Force Is Born

A Japanese woman will be flying through the glass ceiling as she becomes her country’s first female fighter pilot.

First Lieutenant Misa Matsushima, 26, will begin duty on Friday having completed her training to fly F-15s, Japan’s military has announced.

As the first female fighter pilot, I will open the way, she said.

Japan’s air force began recruiting women in 1993 – except as fighter jet and reconnaissance aircraft pilots. It lifted that final ban in late 2015.

Ever since I saw the movie Top Gun when I was in primary school, I have always admired fighter jet pilots, the graduate of Japan’s National Defence Academy told journalists.

I wish to continue to work hard to fulfill my duty, not just for myself but also for women who will follow this path in the future.

Three other women are currently training to join the elite group of fighter pilots.

The F-15J fighter jets they will pilot are twin-engine aircrafts designed for air-to-air combat with other jets.

They can reach top speeds of about Mach 2.5 – 2.5 times the speed of sound or about 3,000 km/h (1,864 miles/h).

The

first female fighter pilot of the Air Self-Defence Force is born

, a tweet from the Japan Air Self-Defence Force said.


Tourism Observer

USA: Eel Smugglers Convicted As Lucrative Business Progresses

Tommy Zhou said he’d buy black market eels as long as nobody developed a big mouth, and if anyone did double-cross him, he’d pay $200,000 to have him killed, according to undercover agents who arrested Zhou.

Zhou, a 42-year-old Brooklyn seafood dealer, was buying and selling eels caught illegally in Virginia.

He was among more than 20 other people ranging from small fishermen to powerful businessmen recently snagged in a multi-state wildlife trafficking investigation named Operation Broken Glass.

The dealers were laundering eels buying them illegally, then mixing them with legal ones and actively smuggling them using false labels, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife special agent Eric Holmes, who posed as a poacher selling to Zhou.

Poaching all along the East Coast was very sophisticated, he said.

They used night vision and rental vehicles, and they could drop a crew in the middle of the night without making any noise.

As long as these poachers had the opportunity to sell to a dealer willing to buy illegal eels, they were unstoppable.

The run on American eels, Anguilla rostrata, was sparked by a sushi crisis that began in 2010.

Wild baby eels, also known as glass eels or elvers, acquired to seed giant aquaculture farms in China and elsewhere were becoming scarce putting supplies of unagi, eel grilled with soy sauce and served at sushi joints around the world, in danger.

Asia’s eels had already been largely depleted when the European Union announced that it was putting a ban on exports of European eel species to stem a precipitous population decline.

In response, eel prices in Maine soared from $185 per pound in 2010 to nearly $1,900 per pound in 2012.

Some small fishermen who previously were scraping by digging clams and worms suddenly earned enough cash in the span of an 11-week eel season to pay off their houses and buy new trucks.

Maine fishermen tell stories of those gold rush days when they could catch as many eels as they liked and dealers would park along the riverbanks waiting to dole out thousands of dollars in cash.

With so much money at stake, the eel business was ripe for robberies, and dealers started carrying side arms for protection.

At the same time some saw an opportunity to make even more money by trafficking eels across state lines and ultimately to Asia, violating the U.S. smuggling law known as the Lacey Act.

That’s when we launched our investigation, agent Holmes said. Operation Broken Glass stretched from Maine to South Carolina.

One of the kingpins was a Maine dealer named Bill Sheldon, who years earlier had taught fellow fishermen how to catch the tiny translucent elvers swimming upstream by moonlight.

Even though eel prices were sometimes as low as $30 per pound, elver fishing provided another source of income for locals cobbling together a living.

When eel prices spiked, Sheldon was in a prime position to cash in.

Court records show that Sheldon worked with a network of elver fishermen and dealers up and down the East Coast to smuggle eels to Asia.

In a factual statement accompanying his guilty plea last October, Sheldon admitted to trafficking nearly $500,000 worth of eels and to taking steps to evade the police.

He is now serving six months in a New Hampshire prison, and he was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.

If he hadn’t already sold his truck with the license plate EELWGN, the judge would have required him to forfeit it.

As a substitute, Sheldon paid the value: $33,200. In addition, he was ordered to serve a three-year period of supervised release on condition that he not possess a license to purchase or export eels.

Five other dealers—Timothy Lewis, Thomas Choi, Yarin Im, Richard Austin, and Tommy Zhou—received prison sentences ranging from six months to two years. Austin and Zhou were handed the lengthiest sentences by judges in Norfolk, Virginia.

Austin, sentenced in October, had several previous wildlife-related convictions. Zhou’s threat of retribution was likely factored into the Maine judge’s March ruling, said U.S. trial attorney Cassandra Barnum.

Thirteen lower level poachers received one to two years’ probation and a fine. Three additional men have been indicted for eel trafficking in multiple states and are awaiting trials.

When you have an industry that’s this lucrative, there are always going to be people who want to take advantage of the resource, Barnum said.

We caught a lot of people, but there will always be more we’re not going to stop paying attention.

In response to the eel rush that began in 2012 and concerns about the resource’s sustainability, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which coordinates the conservation and management of many fish populations along the East Coast, started tightening fishing restrictions in Maine.

In 2014 the commission instituted a state quota—11,749 pounds of eels, which was reduced to 9,688 pounds in 2015. Under the quota system, each fisherman has an allowable take based on the average of his or her past eel landings.

Every time a fisherman sells eels, the tally is tracked with a swipe card that logs information such as the weight of eels caught and their location into a government database.

Also, dealers are no longer allowed to pay cash only checks which makes the transactions traceable.

The system appeared to be working until this year, when Maine law enforcement investigators discovered that some dealers were making off-the-book transactions in cash eel prices had reached an all-time high of nearly $3,000 per pound.

The investigators determined that the illicit activity was so prolific that it would likely put the state beyond its quota.

Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, made an emergency ruling to close the fishery this year on May 24, two weeks earlier than usual.

The commissioner made the decision that he didn’t want us to go over the state’s quota, Marine Patrol Major Rene Cloutier said.

It appeared that we were getting close.

The decision to close early came at a pivotal time. In August, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is scheduled to consider an addendum to increase Maine’s current state quota to the 2014 level, an 8 percent hike.

Now people are questioning whether the commission will instead shut down the fishery, as almost every other East Coast state that has a commercial eel fisher has done.

Shutting down the fishery would be off the Richter scale, said Darrell Young, co-director of the Maine Elver Fishermen Association.

I can see shutting it down early but not shutting it down for good because of a few bad eggs.

Cloutier said it would be a shame if it comes to that. Before we instituted the swipe card, it was chaos—there’s no way we’d still be fishing if we hadn’t proved that we were serious about protecting the resource.

I’m really disappointed in the people who took advantage of the system. It’s disheartening.

A fair amount of people make a whole year’s pay fishing elvers. Now that’s in jeopardy.


Tourism Observer

SPAIN: Police Raid Europe's Largest Turtle Farm In Mallorca, Shut It Down

Spanish authorities have dismantled the facility, which contained 1,100 animals and 14 of the 50 most endangered turtle species.

Spanish Civil Guard has just shut down what it calls the largest illegal turtle hatchery in Europe, on the island of Mallorca.

According to police the farm contained 1,110 turtles and tortoises. This haul included 14 of the 50 most endangered turtle species in the world, according to Europol, the European law enforcement agency.

This number is due to grow, as more than 200 of the females are gravid, or due to soon lay eggs, authorities noted.

Besides adults and hatchlings, the raid also turned up 750 eggs.

Video from Spanish authorities shows turtles housed in plastic tubs in crowded conditions on the farm, which was also populated with opaque tubs of water and barren dirt pens.

Code-named Operation Coahuila, the foundations of the investigation and subsequent raid were laid in February 2017, when police report that they discovered a shipment of illegal turtles at the Palma de Mallorca Airport in the Balearic Islands of Spain.

The turtles found in this shipment did not correspond to what was declared on the package, the police say.

Many of the turtles in the February shipment were species at high risk of extinction and protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

A long investigation ensued leading the Spanish Civil Guard eventually to the hatchery, located on the island of Mallorca.

So far, three suspects have been arrested. Two of the suspects were Germans and the third suspect is the owner of an exotic pet store in Barcelona.

Three others are also under investigation. If the detainees are unable to present documents showing their legal ownership, they will likely be charged for the crimes of smuggling of protected species.

They also face charges of money laundering.

Of the 1,100 turtles, there were 62 species recorded. The farm contained radiated tortoises (Astrochelys radiata), native to Madagascar, which are critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

They are also listed on Appendix I of CITES.

Captive-bred radiated tortoises, and other species listed on Appendix I of CITES, are only allowed to be sold internationally for commercial purposes if the breeding facility is approved and registered with CITES.

The farm in Mallorca is not listed on the CITES registry of captive-breeding operations.

Other species seized included box turtles (Cuora sp.), considered at high risk of extinction in Southeast Asia.

There were also species endemic to Mexico, the United States and Canada, the Civil Guard noted.

Turtle and tortoises are trade for their shells, meat, and leather. They are also bred to be sold as pets.

The trade in turtles and tortoises is one of the driving factors in their demise leading them to extinction all over the world, says Max Maurer, director of membership and public outreach at Turtle Conservancy, who adds that he is not passing judgment on the suspects, who deserve the chance to make their case in court.


Tourism Observer

NIGERIA: Guards Return Bag Containing Huge Amount Of Dollars, People Call Them Stupid

Achi Daniel, a junior security guard at Halogen Securities Limited who returned a bag containing dollars, jewellery, wristwatches and other documents that he found at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, on Saturday, has revealed that some of his friends mocked him for his honesty.

Speaking with journalists in Lagos on Thursday during a ceremony held to honour him and his supervisor, Francis Emepueaku, Achi said it was not his first time returning lost money in the course of discharging his duty.

The security company also rewarded the duo: Daniel and Francis with education scholarships and the sum of N250,000.

He explained that he was never overwhelmed by the contents of the bag and vowed to do same if he finds himself in a similar situation in future.

He also told journalists that he was not discouraged by those who mocked him, stating that his Christian background aided his character.

He said: If the money was in multi-millions of foreign currencies, I would still have returned it. I saw the bag on a trolley and I said to myself that somebody must have forgotten it there. It was not padlocked and without opening it, I went to the ground floor with the bag to meet with my supervisor.

Inside the bag, I saw a mobile phone, jewellery and a huge amount of dollars, as well as several other documents. At that point, we went straight to the manager’s office, who then put a call through to somebody in Atlanta, Georgia, who happened to be the daughter of the owner of the bag.

When they returned, they were jittery that some of the items in the bag may have vanished, but after crosschecking it, she discovered that everything was intact.

The family attempted to give us some money as a form of appreciation, which we rejected, as we told them we were doing our job.

It never crossed my mind to steal the money and I wouldn’t have done that because it wasn’t my first time of finding such and returning to the owners.

No amount of money would make me to take what doesn’t belong to me. I believe my own time will come and at the right time.

He urged other Nigerians to emulate his character, insisting that it pays to be good.

Also speaking at the event, Engineer Saleh Dunoma, the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), said several related cases had been recorded at the nation’s airports.

Dunoma, who was represented at the event by Engr. Salisu Daura, Director of Engineering Services, FAAN, said the act gives credibility to the agency’s security profiling system.

He emphasised that the duo would forever be remembered in the history of the industry as role models, reference points, shinning lights and good ambassadors.

He said: Some others may look at you and tag you stupid; I want to assure you that by virtue of this act, you have secured seats for yourselves in the comity of those with credibility and integrity.

I hereby want to advise other staff to emulate this great virtue and become role models just like these two.

Also at the event was Dr. Banji Oyegbami, a medical practitioner and friend of the person whose bag was found. He had gone to the car park to pick up his friend and his family, who returned to the country for a burial programme.

According to him, he had parked on the first floor of the car park and waited for his guests to arrive, which took another one hour and the team moved towards the car park to commence their journey out of the airport.

However, after more than an hour of driving, his friend, whose name he declined to mention, received a call from his daughter in the United States about a bag that was found, which incidentally belonged to his wife.

He added:“It was only then that my friend's wife realised that her bag was missing. To confirm the information, I called the missing phone and it was picked.

The receiver confirmed that the bag was with him. He gave his name as Mr. Francis and that he is the supervisor of the park.

President Muhammadu Buhari has also commended the airport workers for their honesty.


Tourism Observer

USA: Alligator Swallows Another Alligator

THIS is the moment an alligator swiftly devoured one of its own without thinking twice.

Photographer Brad Streets, 31, was blown away by the brazen act of cannibalism.

He stopped by the river after noticing a gut pile floating in the river.

But minutes later he saw the larger alligator snatch the baby by the neck, before swallowing it whole.

He said: I wasn’t sure what was going on at first, I saw a gut pile floating by the large alligator so I stopped to observe.

It wasn’t until about an hour later that I finally got to glance at it and saw that it was in fact another much smaller alligator in its mouth.

I was very excited to be seeing nature at work in this way.

Cannibalism is not extraordinary in the alligator community.

The reptiles devour babies in a bid to regulate their population.

Discussing the extent of cannibalism in the gator community, the act strongly influences the competitive interactions and life histories of populations.

A crocodile was photographed crossing a canal in Florida using a pool noodle.

In a marsh near coastal Texas, a young alligator recently met a grisly end — as a meal for another, much bigger alligator.

A photographer happened to be nearby and captured the alligator cannibalism, as the hungry beast gulped down its prey.

The small alligator was more than a mouthful for the larger predator, but the big gator determinedly gnashed and chomped, and the smaller gator's body and legs eventually disappeared down the big reptile's throat.

In the final photo, only the tail of the little alligator is still visible, dangling from the now-sated bigger gator's jaws.

Photographer Brad Streets spotted the cannibalism at Brazos Bend State Park in Needville, Texas; his attention was first captured by a floating pile of guts that he spied in the water near a large alligator, he said in a statement.

About an hour later, he got a closer look at the gator and noticed that it had a much smaller alligator in its mouth, Streets said.

American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) are abundant in Texas along the Gulf of Mexico, where they inhabit coastal marshes and river systems, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPW).

An estimated 250 alligators measuring at least 6 feet (1.8 meters) long inhabit Brazos Bend State Park, and some measure as long as 16 feet (4.9 m), TPW representatives said on the park's website.

Alligators living in the park may be found anywhere there is water, and even in some places where there isn't water, according to TPW.

Gators aren't picky eaters and will swallow whatever they find in or near the water that they think might be food and that can include rocks, shotgun shells and beer cans, the TPW explained.

Some American alligators have been known to snack on sharks, scientists reported in a study published in September 2017 in the journal Southeastern Naturalist; researchers have even observed crocodilians eating fruit.

But an alligator's typical diet includes fish, turtles, snakes, birds and mammals — such as rabbits, hogs, raccoons and deer — and yes, sometimes other alligators.

In fact, alligator cannibalism is not at all unusual.

The larger males, they're opportunistic. They see a smaller alligator it's a nice snack for them. It usually happens with larger adult males that have established a certain territory.

During mating season, when subordinate males come along, they fight and the winner eats the loser.

Bottoms up! In the end, only the smaller gator's tail was visible in the hungry predator's maw.

Small prey is gulped down whole, but consuming larger animals takes time, and alligators use their powerful jaws to crunch bones and shred bigger meals into more manageable, bite-size pieces.

They'll do a death roll and spin in the water and use their sharp teeth and strong jaws to rip off chunks of the prey and swallow it in pieces.

For a really big meal, an alligator might stash its bloody prize in a den or burrow at the water's edge to let it soften up so that it's easier to tear apart, and then come back and finish it off later.

It depends on the size of the prey, the temperature of the water and how hungry they are.

A meal the size of a young alligator, such as the one shown in the photos, would take the big gator a couple of weeks to digest. But that doesn't mean that the alligator will take a break from enjoying the ongoing buffet its watery ecosystem provides, he added.

They're not like snakes, which sit there for a month after a big meal and don't eat anything. If they have access to food they'll take it.


Tourism Observer

INDIA: Malana Grows Best Cannabis In The World

India’s Parvati Valley is well known among travellers for its psychedelic parties and free-flowing hashish that originates from the ancient village of Malana in North India’s Himachal Pradesh region. But if you look beyond the haze, you’ll find a treasure trove of legends, intrigue and unanswered questions.

Nestled in the peaks of the Himalayas, Malana is surrounded by steep cliffs and snow-capped mountains.

Travellers have long been drawn to this village of nearly 1,700 inhabitants, staying for days on end amid the cold gushes of wind and rows of dark green deodar trees to consume what locals consider the holy herb and what outsiders see as a way to free the mind.

The famed and award-winning Malana cream. This cannabis resin or hashish is renowned both for the hand rubbing-technique used to produce it and for its reportedly remarkable intoxicating effects. But go to Malana to try to make sense of the myths surrounding the village.

Legend has it that some of Alexander the Great’s army took shelter in this isolated village in 326BC after they were wounded in a battle against Porus, a ruler in India’s Punjab region.

These soldiers are often said to be the ancestors of the Malani people. Artefacts from that period have been found in the village, such as a sword that reportedly rests inside the temple.

However, genetic ties to the soldiers have not been studied or established. In fact, many of the locals I spoke to had no idea where this myth originated.

The big claim that Malani people have descended from Alexander the Great’s army has become a widely accepted truth, but I have not found any real backing to it.

There are some weapons and other things that can be found that have raised these links, but there is no evidence to this story, said Amlan Datta, a filmmaker who has spent a decade working in Malana.

But these theories are fuelled by locals’ noticeably different physical features and their language, which are unlike that of any other local tribe, adding to the enigma surrounding the Malanis and their identity.

They speak Kanashi, which is considered sacred and is not taught to outsiders. It is also spoken nowhere else in the world.

Bhaiji is a polite way of saying brother, which is a fairly common way to address men in Himachal. Though locals understood when I spoke to them in Hindi, their responses in Kanashi were incomprehensible to me.

A study of Kanashi is currently being undertaken by Uppsala University in Sweden, led by professor of linguistics, Anju Saxena.

Kanashi qualifies as a definitely endangered, as an unwritten and almost undescribed language, It belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family, and in all the surrounding villages, Indo-Aryan languages are spoken, which are completely unrelated to Kanashi.

This raises interesting questions concerning its prehistory and its linguistic structure.

Even getting to Malana is a journey into the unknown. There are no motorable roads to the village, and it took me about four hours to trek there from the village of Jari at the bottom of the Parvati Valley.

The approach is steep yet breath-taking. It wasn’t long before I started passing Malani people distinguishable by their light brown hair, light brown eyes, long noses and a distinct wheatish or a golden-brownish complexion of skin.

Most of whom were traditionally dressed in light brown robes, caps and hemp shoes. To me, they looked more Mediterranean than Himachali.

As I entered the village, I came to a group of teenagers who casually inquired whether I was interested in buying some hashish.

Though cannabis has long been the backbone of this small village’s economy, it has led to a host of socio-cultural issues, such as young children being involved in the drug trade.

This is perhaps why, one year ago, the village deity Jamdagni Rishi – who is locally nicknamed the Jamlu Devta and is a great sage in Hindu mythology decreed through his spiritual spokesperson the Gur that all guesthouses across the village would be shut, leaving the village open to outsiders only during the day.

Jamlu Devta is an important figurehead in village governance, a political set-up that has long baffled researchers and visitors who cannot comprehend how such an advanced form of governance exists in this quaint and remote Himalayan village.

Malana’s unique democratic system is said to be among the oldest in the world, and, similar to the Ancient Greek system of democracy, it consists of a lower house and upper house.

However, it has a uniquely spiritual twist to it: ultimate rulings rest on the upper court, which includes three important figures, of which one is the representative of the local deity, Jamlu Devta.

Devta is the ultimate word and we have a set-up of a council and three political figures of sorts, one of whom – the Gur, or the vessel who is possessed by Jamlu – communicates to us the decisions of Jamlu Devta, explained Rohan, one of the hashish-dealing teenagers.

Datta had told me about a local legend that said Jamlu Devta once inhabited Malana, which he was gifted by the Hindu god Shiva. There are two temples in the village, one dedicated to him and the other, to his wife, Renuka Devi.

As I walked through the narrow passageways of this ancient village, dotted with wooden and brick houses, I entered the large courtyard, where the lower court gathers, and a temple dedicated to Jamlu Devta. It was sight to behold against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains.

The temple, with wide wooden pillars, intricate doors and a host of bones, skulls and other sacrificial animal parts on one wall looked intriguing. But there was a warning sign outside demanding INR 3,500 On touching of this holy place of Jamdagni Rishi.

This sign is an outward demonstration of another tradition that is very apparent in Malana: a quest to preserve the purity of the village.

People across Himachal Pradesh will tell you that the Malanis are known to restrict contact with outsiders, particularly in terms of direct physical contact. A tourist was personally warned to keep my distance by the driver who had brought me to Jari earlier that day.

Although he did see some of the younger generations hugging or shaking hands, most people here still strongly hold the taboo of touching outsiders.

When heI went to pay for a bottle of water, the shopkeeper asked him to leave the notes on the counter instead of handing them to him directly.

The tourist learned that marriages must take place within the village; transgression of this norm invites social boycott.

Well aware that outsiders aren’t welcome, he felt like an intruder as he kept probing people to find out more information about the village.

Himachali people in general are warm and chatty, and they love to share stories and meals with visitors; in Malana, however, long conversations with locals were rare.

Descending from the hills and coming down from this otherworld, the tourist acknowledged his position as a traveller who would forever be on the outside of this mysterious Himalayan hamlet.

Whether he liked it or not, the locals hadn’t taken him in, and he needed to respect their culture.

But now, weeks later, he looks back on his quest to unfold the legends of Malana, he came to the realisation that the very beauty of my experience was based on the essence of mystery, the unknown.

Cherishing that very quality of Malana finally has led me to a newfound appreciation of this strange, cold land of enigmatic people.

Lurking in the North east Kullu range, Malana is completely isolated from the monotony of India’s city culture. This remote village is mainly known for it’s charas, and has over time drawn hashish lovers from all over the world. But Malana is so much more than that.

Malana is famous for Malana cream, a strain of Cannabis hashish which has high oil content and an intensely fragrant aroma.

Malana Cream is a hash made from heirloom cannabis grown in this remote area of the Parvati Valley. In Amsterdam, the stuff sells for $250 per tola, which is 11.66 grams of hashish.

For the locals, cannabis is a religion. There is nothing else that grows in the valley except cannabis. Unlike other mountain villages where people farm potatoes and peas, Malana grows only one plant—cannabis.

Infact, the stretch of cannabis fields in the whole of Parvati valley is quite unbelievable. They are seen growing wild everywhere. So, the livelihood of all Malani people depends on those 3 months of cannabis harvesting from September to November.

There are approximately 7000 people in the village and almost each and everyone work together during the harvesting time.

But, the Malanis learnt the art of cannabis rubbing quite recently. Prior to that their only source of livelihood came from selling sheep wool.

Many hash retailers label hash as Malana Cream to increase profits. Yet, the real stuff is so popular due to the quality of the beginning cannabis strains.

The heirloom varieties grown in Malana are naturally high resin producers, making hash extractions from the plant all the more potent.

Some claim that hash made from Malana plants contain 30 to 40% THC, which is pretty darn high considering many Indian cannabis plants produce between 5 and 8% THC per plant. The hash itself is dark black and has a bit of a chewing gum consistency.

The world knows of the sweet pleasures of the Parvati valley. Malana cream has won the Best Hashish title twice, in 1994 and 1996, at High Times magazine’s Cannabis Cup.

The village is a stoners paradise branded in travel and ganja-hunting literature as the exotic and alluring“ Malana and the Magic Valley

For hundreds of years, the tiny village of Malana was just a speck lost amid the grandiose mountains of the Indian Himalayas.

Nestled at 2,700 meters (8,859 feet) between the higher reaches of the lush Kullu Valley, Malana used to be a four-day hike from the nearest road.

Its laws, tradition says, were laid down by the village god Jamlu. People elected their own parliament and disputes were settled in their own court. Villagers would run in terror if an outsider showed up. India didn't even know it was there.

Malana has become one of the world's top stoner destinations, and a symbolical battleground for India's fight against 'charas,' the black and sticky hashish that has made the village famous

But Malana is hidden no more. For centuries, the villagers have been growing the plant that has made Malana one of the world's top stoner destinations, and a battleground - at least symbolically - for India's haphazard fight against 'charas,' the black and sticky hashish that has made the village famous.

In 1985, the Indian government gave in to international pressure and banned the production and consumption of cannabis. Possession of a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of charas - a THC-rich extract derived from rubbing out the resin from freshly cut marijuana buds - is punishable by a minimum 10 years' imprisonment.

In the sleepy mountainous states of North India, marijuana has grown indigenously for hundreds of years. Local lawmakers and officials say the plant is part of their tradition and for those who live in steep, remote villages, cannabis is the only cash crop they can grow in harsh weather and geographic conditions.

Maheshwar Singh, a local lawmaker and the descendent head of the royal family of Kullu, said a look at the old tax books shows that the plant was legally cultivated and sold for decades before India's drug law.

'It was a multipurpose plant for these people,' said the burly, cheerful 67-year-old, pointing out the local usage of hemp fibers in making ropes and traditional 'pula' slippers that continue to be the only footwear allowed for pilgrimages.

The people of Malana have to haul ration and wood for kilometers (miles) to get it into the village. Though a shabby road has cut the arduous trek to only an hour and a rope-way is being used to transport heavy cargo, the villagers still spend half the year collecting essentials from nature. The other half is spent in hibernation as the bitter winter buries the village under snow.

Every morning, Gori Massi slowly starts the trek to her field, sometimes singing to herself as she walks up a rocky trail. Walking at a pace of a 20-year-old, the wrinkles on her face and hands are the only indication of her age; she is 80.

It will take her an hour to get to her plants that are hidden far away from the village near the forest line. She will sit there all day, curing high-potency marijuana buds and rubbing them between her palms to juice out the resin that smears her hands black.

After collecting about 20 grams (0.71 ounces) of gooey hashish that would fetch her anywhere between $50 to $150, she decides to call it a day. And prays the police spare her fields this year.

'Wheat and other grains don't grow on this land,' Massi said. 'Nothing else grows here. We have to live like that, and whatever plants we do have are cut down by the police. What can we do?'

The aromatic 'Malana Cream' - a variety of oily hash produced in the village from higher-potency plants with hybrid seeds - has earned legendary status among pot smokers around the world.

Consumed mostly with tobacco, in a joint or a chillum, the pungent hash has found its way into coffee shops in Amsterdam and won the High Times Cannabis Cup at least twice.

In India, this fame has meant an influx of foreign and local tourists into Parvati Valley, a group of mountains around the Parvati River near Malana, that has grown each year in the past decade.

'It's just become a destination for international cool people, stoners, hikers,' said Florent Dupont, 32, as he sipped tea and rolled a joint in a guesthouse.

'People know they can get the freshest, nicest product,' the filmmaker from France added.

The valley is teeming with young Israelis, many draped in colorful shawls and wearing their hair into ropey dreadlocks, who come for a therapeutic experience after years of military service.

Singh said it is this frenzied popularity of local hashish that has exploded the cultivation of cannabis in the valley. In 2016, the local government estimates 240 hectares (593 acres) of land in the region was used for cannabis cultivation, producing more than 12,000 kilograms (26,455 pounds) of hashish.

The real numbers are much higher as plants are grown on steep edges of high mountains that are impossible for the police to reach.

While the rising demand and price of charas has benefited the villagers, it has also led to a slight increase in prosecutions and prompted the government to send machete-wielding police and forest personnel on long treks to destroy a small percentage of the marijuana fields.

Villagers claim they have an understanding with local officials, who tell them to push their fields away from the village and into forest land, where they cannot be prosecuted for a field that's not on their land. Police strategy has mainly focused on destroying cannabis fields on forest land.

The few villagers who have been arrested and are serving time for trafficking have been picked up in cities like New Delhi, Chandigarh and Goa.

But it is impossible to destroy mountains full of weed. Singh, who has visited Malana several times during election campaigns and is revered by inhabitants because of his royal lineage, said the government needs a different approach to tackle the problem.

'I feel they have a reason to stick to that plantation because that is the only way they can earn their living,' Singh said. 'The Government of India had made a policy that they would be provided some alternative employment. But that we have not been able to do.'

In Malana, Massi's middle-aged son Jabe Ram is preparing to take a statue of the village god Jamlu on a pilgrimage across the daunting mountain of Rasol to bathe it in holy water in a temple in the neighboring valley. It will take him five days to return. One man from each household in the village must accompany him, as is tradition.

It means they will be five days away from the fields and rubbing. But Ram isn't worried; the harvest season will go on for another few weeks.

'They want us to completely stop growing marijuana. But we keep sowing it,' Ram said. 'If the government helped us in some way and protected us from hunger and cold, we would maybe consider stopping. Obviously, we are not going to go hungry. Even if we have to go to jail for it, so be it.'



Tourism Observer

Begging And Drinking Alchohol To Result In 100 Pound Fine

People caught begging, drinking alcohol or feeding gulls in parts of Weymouth face fines of £100 under new rules.

A new Public Space Protection Order (PSPO), which aims to reduce antisocial behaviour, covers the promenade, town centre and some parks and squares.

Weymouth & Portland Borough Council said the fixed penalty notices would only be used as a last resort.

The council would continue to be sensitive to people genuinely in need of support.

Areas included in the alcohol ban include the promenade, town centre and railway station, Rodwell Trail, Chapelhay Gardens, Nothe Gardens and Easton Square, Portland.

Feeding gulls is now banned throughout the town centre and promenade, while begging is forbidden in the town centre, from Westham Road to Town Bridge, from the river to the seafront.

Byelaws already prohibit begging on the promenade.

The fine of £100 must be paid within 28 days but is reduced to £75 if paid within 14 days.

Human rights group Liberty has criticised the use of PSPOs, saying: If someone is forced to beg, that's not antisocial behaviour, that's extreme poverty.

Mr Byatt, who is responsible for community safety at the council, said: We understand the difficulties of situations that lead individuals to begging, and will continue to be sensitive to people genuinely in need of our support.

However, fixed penalty notices will be available if there is no other alternative to tackle the problem.

The new PSPO, which remains in place for three years, also bans cycling on the town's promenade between 10:00 and 17:30 between Good Friday and the end of October.


Tourism Observer

INDONESIA: Tiger Statue Destroyed By Army

The Indonesian army has demolished a tiger statue in front of a base in West Java after it became a laughing stock online.

The grinning tiger in a small village in Garut was supposed to be a mascot for the Siliwangi Military Command.

But internet users found it hilarious because it was so different from the fierce tiger on official logos.

I don't know why, but every time I see its face, I laugh buahaha said one Facebook user.

The tiger had been in place for several years, but only recently found internet fame.

Vincent Candra said he had laughed a lot when he saw the picture of the tiger and decided to share it on Twitter.

It has since travelled across social media and made its way into the national media.

Many have poked fun at the tiger's cartoonish appearance, while others edited it into film posters and surreal scenarios. Other people uploaded more weird looking tiger statues they had seen in front of army bases.

I didn't expect it will go viral, said Vincent. I felt sad when I found out that the statue was destroyed.

The army moved in to put the tiger out of its misery, demolishing it with chisels.

Siliwangi military commander Maj Gen Herindra said the statue had been made long time ago in Cisewu district.

Every unit has their own decision on how the statue was made, but sometimes the artist was not that good.

People who had been enjoying the humour online instead expressed grief.

RIP Cisewu tiger, thank you for entertaining us, said one Twitter user.

One had an alternative suggestion, saying it would have been better to move it into the zoo, so children can take selfies with it.

A parody Facebook page, Indonesia's Humour Ministry or Kementerian Humor Indonesia, said a lot of people were broken hearted.

As one of first sites to share the photo last week, they said they felt a bit guilty that it had now gone.

So they made a special goodbye cartoon to remind everyone of its unique grinning face.

Gen Herindra said the army would be looking at other statues in the region to see if they are consistent with the original military emblem.

If some of them are not good, we will change them, he said.

But he also promised a new tiger statue would be installed at the Siliwangi base, which was more similar to the command's logo.


Tourism Observer

INDIA: Snakes Go On Rampage As Floodwaters Recede In Kerala. More Than 400 Killed By Floods

Flood victims returning home in the Indian state of Kerala have been warned to prepare for a new menace of Snakes.

Several snake catching teams have been deployed to affected areas, amid fears the reptiles could be hiding in cupboards, under carpets, or inside washing machines in previously submerged homes.

Hospitals in the worst-hit areas are readying supplies of anti-venom.

Devastating flooding has killed around 400 people in Kerala since June.

More than a million others were displaced, with many of them taking shelter in thousands of relief camps across the southern state.

As well as the glut of snakes, scorpions and other insects are reported to have moved into human homes.

On social media, footage emerged of a woman trying to stop a 10ft (3m)-long python from entering her garden by tapping a broomstick on the ground.

Several hospitals in northern and central Kerala, where flooding was especially acute, have reported a spike in patients with snake bites.

Local snake handler Vava Suresh said he had captured five cobras in Ernakulam district.

One was found inside the wardrobe on the second floor of a house while another one was inside a shelf in a house, he said.

Returning residents are being urged to sift through their belongings using a stick.

When rescuers in India's flood-ravaged southern state of Kerala reached a flooded hut in the city of Thrissur, the couple living there refused to leave without their 25 dogs.

The water was rising, and the dogs were huddled on a single bed. The rescue workers had arrived on boats, and Sunitha, who uses only one name, flatly told them she and her husband would not leave without their stray and abandoned pets.

Our neighbours had been moved to schools and camps nearby. Rescue workers said that we could not bring our dogs to the relief camp, she said.

So the workers went back and got in touch with an animal rescue group.

Sally Varma of Humane Society International said that their volunteers arrived soon, and arranged for the dogs to be taken to a special shelter for affected animals.

Ms Varma said she has started a fundraiser for the family and its pets so a kennel could be built at their home after the floods recede.

Nearly 400 people have died in the worst flooding Kerala has witnessed in a century. Thousands remain stranded.

More than one million people have been displaced, with many of them taking shelter in thousands of relief camps across the state.

But what is striking is how hundreds of animals are being rescued in the affected areas.

In what appears to be one of the biggest animal rescue operations during a natural calamity in India, hundreds of volunteers and animal rescue workers have travelled to flood-affected areas.

Social media is awash with dramatic rescue videos, a rescuer removing his life jacket and putting it on a Labrador to help it swim to higher ground,.

Drenched dogs being taken out of flooded homes and kennels; and country boats and inflatable rafts carrying dogs, goats and cats to safety.

Rescuers have waded through water, and travelled on boats and rafts to treat, feed and rescue hundreds of animals dogs, cats, goats, cows, cattle, ducks, and even snakes - as the waters have begun receding. Trucks with animal feed and medicines are reaching affected districts.

Some animals have been moved to shelter camps, and others to higher ground. A number of animal rescue help lines have been set up, and rescuers are using WhatsApp and social media to respond to calls.

We are getting more than 100 calls a day on our helpline. The number of animals that have been moved to higher ground and rescued must be in hundreds, Anand Shiva of Kerala Animal Rescue said.

When the flood waters rose, most people tethered their pets and animals and left or were rescued. When they reached the shelter, they broke down and told rescuers that they had left their pets behind.

That became a problem. So many tethered animals just drowned. These animals are natural swimmers, and it is better to keep them free so they can swim to higher ground, NG Jayasimha of Humane Society International, which has rescued more than 100 animals, said.

In Thrissur alone, rescue workers found 200 cattle tethered in small sheds in people's homes before they were untied and taken to higher ground.

Kerala, according to one estimate, has a million dogs and a third of them are free roaming strays.

More than 23,000 people were bitten by dogs in 2015, and nearly half of them contracted rabies.

Animal rights groups had then complained that cash-strapped municipalities and irate citizens were poisoning, clubbing, beating, shooting and electrocuting strays to control their population.

But there's a genuine love for dogs in the state, contrary to public perception. Otherwise we wouldn't have found so many dogs in people's homes, said Mr Jayasimha.

More than 8,000 cattle, calves and buffaloes, 3,297 goats and 47 dogs have died in the floods, according to the government.

Floods in the southern Indian state of Kerala have killed more than 350 people since June.

The devastating floods in Kerala peaked last week. The monsoon rains have since begun to ease and rescue teams have been deployed, but thousands of people remain marooned.

The state should have been prepared for this, just a month earlier, a government report had warned that Kerala was the worst performer among southern Indian states in the effective management of water resources.

With 42 points, it was ranked number 12. The top three states were Gujarat in the west, Madhya Pradesh in the centre and Andhra Pradesh in the south, with scores of 79, 69 and 68 respectively.

A month down the line, Kerala seems to have confirmed the report's finding.

Officials and experts have said the floods in Kerala which has 44 rivers flowing through it would not have been so severe if authorities had gradually released water from at least 30 dams.

This could have been avoided if the dam operators had started releasing water in advance rather than waiting for dams to be filled up, when they have no alternative but to release water, said Himanshu Thakkar, a water expert at the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People.

It was only when the floods peaked last week that water from more than 80 dams was released.

It is clear that major dams in the state like Idukki and Idamalayar only released water when Kerala was in the throes of heavy flooding, which actually proved to add further misery to the situation, Mr Thakkar said,

He added that dam operators had had sufficient time to release water when it was relatively dry, which could have helped prevent some of the damage.

An assessment by the federal government earlier this year found that Kerala was among the 10 states most vulnerable to flooding.

The state's administration is accused of not having taken the necessary steps to lower the flooding risk.

Experts say the federal government is also to blame because Kerala gets no early flood warning from the Central Water Commission (CWC), the only government agency authorised to do so.

The unprecedented floods and dam water releases also raise the questions about flood forecasting and advance action by the CWC, Mr Thakkar said.

We are shocked to find that the agency has absolutely no flood forecasting sites. It has only flood monitoring sites in Kerala, he added.

It's high time that the CWC includes some key dams like Idukki and Idamalayar and some key locations in its flood forecasting.

While the state has lagged behind on these preventive measures, the rainfall this monsoon season has been exceptionally high.

James Wilson, an adviser on water issues for the Kerala state government said it is a calamity that has happened after 100 years and no one had predicted this amount of rain. That's why there was no preparation for this level of disaster.

We have been managing floods every year, but this time it was extraordinarily extreme and that is why they were forced to release the waters of the dams.

Kerala recorded more than 37% excess rainfall in just two-and-a-half months, while in the past that has happened throughout the monsoon season which usually lasts about four months.

Such heavy rainfall in a short space of time also triggered landslides that killed many people. Environmentalists say deforestation is responsible for this.

Some parts of Kerala have been marooned because wetlands and lakes that acted as natural safeguards against floods have disappeared because of rampant urbanisation and construction of infrastructure.

Heavy rains in 2015 in the southern city of Chennai killed at least 70 people because of shoddy urban planning.

But experts say the havoc that floods have wreaked in Kerala this time has added another dimension to the disaster: danger from dams.

If they are not well managed and if rains continue to be erratic, as predicted by climate change scientists, a disaster of this scale is likely to occur more often than once in a century.


Tourism Observer

THAILAND: Sewage In Black Water Causes Authorities To Get Serious With Defaulting Hotels

An outcry by local residents has caused Phuket officials into dredging a canal in Kamala, on Phuket’s west coast, that has turned stagnant with the black water reeking of the foul stench of sewage so it can flow freely into the sea.

Work began on clearing the canal, which empties directly onto Kamala Beach after the Phuket Provincial Office of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) and Kamala Tambon Administration Organisation (OrBorTor) received a slew of complaints through the Pineapple Eyes community Line Group.

The group acts a community watchdog for atrocious acts of pollution across the island.

An officer at the Phuket MNRE office, who asked not to be named said: We started the dredging from 2pm. The water in the canal stinks because there is nowhere for the water to go.

The officer said the work was being carried out in co-ordination with the Kamala OrBorTor and the Kathu District Office.

Kamala OrBorTor Deputy Chief Executive Nopporn Karuna said that previous attempts to clear the filthy canal had been made, but failed due to the heavy weather Phuket has been experiencing over the past two weeks due to the onslaught of the southwest monsoon.

We started to dredge the sewage out of canal on Aug 10, but we could not continue because of the weather. The monsoon season hit on that date, he said.

Mr Nopporn blamed businesses in the area for the foul condition of the water.

We are planing to inspect suspicious hotels in the area he said.

Kathu District Chief Somprad Prabsongkram concurred.

We are not sure where the dirty water came from, but we will have officials inspect the wastewater from hotels in the area, he said.


Tourism Observer

THAILAND: Another Chinese Tourist Drowns At Koh Racha Yai In Less Than 48 Hours Of Arrival In Phuket

A 32-year-old Chinese tourist drowned at Koh Racha Yai Aug 19 in less than 48 hours after arriving in Phuket on holiday with his family.

Capt Somkiet Sarasin of the Chalong Police was informed at 1:40pm that Zhang Guojun, from Beijing, had been pulled from the sea at the main beach on Koh Racha Yai.

Attempts to revive Mr Zhang on the beach failed, yet rescue workers continued their efforts while rushing him back to Chalong Pier by speedboat, but he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Mr Zhang arrived in Phuket on holiday with his family on Aug 17 and checked in at the Ban Raya hotel on Koh Racha on Saturday, police confirmed.

The family had scheduled to check out from the hotel yesterday and was to board their return flight home Aug 23.

While waiting to board their boat to return to Phuket, all four members of the Zhang family entered the water to swim despite red no swimming flags posted on the beach, police noted in their report.

All four were soon in dire need of assistance in the strong surf.

Three members of the family were rescued safely, but Mr Zhang was already unconscious and unresponsive when pulled from the water, police said.

Chinese consular officials have been notified of Mr Zhang’s death, Capt Somkiet confirmed in his report.


Tourism Observer

THAILAND: Chinese Tourist Drowns While On Phuket Snorkelling Tour, Mother Watches Helplessly

Chinese tourist mother watches helplessly as daughter drowns on Phuket snorkelling tour

Lu Shanshan, 33, from Tianjin in Sichuan Province, was on a tour booked with Happy Holidays, confirmed Lt Nutnaree Narksingha of the Phuket City Police, who was informed of the death at 4:25pm.

Ms Lu and her mother boarded the tour boat JJ Orca, which departed from Wisit Panwa Pier in Phuket, to enjoy a day trip to Koh Khai Nok, off Phuket’s east coast.

Tour guide Chalit Sae-mee explained to police that Ms Lu entered the water at the beach at Koh Khai Nork wearing a buoyancy vest and a snorkelling mask.

Later, Ms Lu’s mother, who remained on the beach, noticed that her daughter was not moving and raised the alarm.

The boat crew rushed to pull Ms Lu out of the water, but she was already unconscious and unresponsive.

Members of the boat crew performed CPR while they rushed Ms Lu back to Phuket, where on arriving she was sped to the Phuket Provincial Hospital in Rassada.

However, Ms Lu was pronounced dead on arrival.

Ms Lu and her mother landed in Phuket at 5am yesterday (Aug 21) and were due to fly home this Saturday (Aug 25). They were staying at a resort in Karon, Lt Nutnaree noted.

Staff at the Happy Holiday tour company confirmed to police that the company has insurance and that the policy covers compensation of up to B1 million in the event of death.

Police noted in their report that the mother has requested a medical examination of her daughter’s body to confirm the cause of death.


Tourism Observer

ALGERIA: What About Tourism In Algeria

Algeria is the largest country on the African continent and the 10th largest country in terms of total area.

Located in North Africa, one of the main tourist attractions is the Sahara, the second largest desert in the world. Some sand dunes can reach 180 meters in height.

This State has been a member of the World Tourism Organization since 1976, but tourism in Algeria i report of the World Tourism Organization published in 2014.

Algeria is the 4th tourist destination in Africa in 2013 with 2,7 million foreign tourists, and ranks 111st on the international tourism scene, according to the London-based World Tourism and Travel Council (WTTC).

The tourism sector in Algeria accounts for 3.9% of the volume of exports, 9.5% of the productive investment rate and 8.1% of the Gross Domestic Product.

The main competitors are the Mediterranean countries, the majority of which have developed a strongly based economy in this sector.

The tourism sector is still underdeveloped in Algeria concerning accommodation and other services. For this reason, the government launched a strategic plan to boost this sector by 2025.

According to Gallup's Law and Order Index, which measures personal safety as well as personal experiences of crime and law enforcement, Algeria ranked 7th in the world's safest countries for 2017.

According to the U.S. News & World Report Algeria is ranked among the top 80 countries in the world in 2018.

In its Best Countries Ranking published each year, the weekly draws up a ranking based on several criteria such as business, citizenship, cultural influence, heritage, quality of life or the possibility of adventures.

USA Today, has ranked Constantine among the eleven cities to visit the world in 2018. The newspaper was based on the experience of Sal Lavallo, one of the youngest people to have visited all 193 member states of the United Nations.

A project developed during the National and International Conference of Tourism was born providing a new dynamics of reception and management of tourism in Algeria.

This project is called Horizon 2025. Foreign investors, mainly French, position themselves to dominate the market, focused mainly on a business clientele.

A first advertising campaign devoted to the industry was carried out to attract investors as well as foreign customers, as well as concrete measures such as conferences, trade shows or commissions.

The international footballer Zinédine Zidane of Algerian descent was also used for a new commercial carried out this time under the aegis of the telephony operator, Ooredoo Algeria, intended for an individual clientele.

A Quality Tourism Plan Algeria was adopted by the government but by the end of 2010, only 10% of tourist structures in Algeria have joined this program.

Investors remain interested in the potential of the country, as well as the high authorities.

The representative of the Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (WTO), Frédéric Perret, praised Algeria Tourism at the conference of the International Tourism and Travel Exhibition held In Algeria in 2010.

He said that the Algerian tourism sector has great potential thanks to its Mediterranean beaches, its fascinating Djurdjura National Park, its human, cultural and historical treasures.

As part of the tourism development policy, Eductour is regularly organized for the national and international visitors.

Beni Hammad Fort also called Al Qal'a of Beni Hammad is a fortified palatine city in Algeria. Now in ruins, in the 11th century, it served as the first capital of the Hammadid dynasty.

It is in the Hodna Mountains northeast of M'Sila, at an elevation of 1,418 metres (4,652 ft), and receives abundant water from the surrounding mountains.

Beni Hammad Fort is near the town of Maadid or Maadhid, about 225 kilometres (140 mi) southeast of Algiers, in the Maghreb. In 1980, it was inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, and described as an authentic picture of a fortified Muslim city.

The town includes a 7-kilometre (4 mi) long line of walls. Inside the walls are four residential complexes, and the largest mosque built in Algeria after that of Mansurah.

It is similar in design to the Grand Mosque of Kairouan, with a tall minaret, 20 metres (66 ft). Excavations have brought to light numerous terracotta, jewels, coins and ceramics testifying to the high level of civilization under the Hammadid dynasty.

Also among the artifacts discovered are several decorative fountains using the lion as a motif. The remains of the emir's palace, known as Dal al-Bahr, include three separate residences separated by gardens and pavilions.

Djémila in Arabic stands for the Beautiful one, formerly Cuicul, is a small mountain village in Algeria, near the northern coast east of Algiers, where some of the best preserved Berbero-Roman ruins in North Africa are found.

It is situated in the region bordering the Constantinois and Petite Kabylie (Basse Kabylie).

In 1982, Djémila became a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its unique adaptation of Roman architecture to a mountain environment. Significant buildings in ancient Cuicul include a theatre, two fora, temples, basilicas, arches, streets, and houses.

The exceptionally well preserved ruins surround the forum of the Harsh, a large paved square with an entry marked by a majestic arch.

Casbah of Algiers, qaṣba, meaning citadel or fortress is specifically the citadel of Algiers in Algeria and the traditional quarter clustered around it.

More generally, a kasbah is the walled citadel of many North African cities and towns. The name made its way into English from French in the late 19th century, and often is spelled kasbah, but also casbah.

M'Zab Valley, or Mzab, Mozabite Aghlan, is a natural region of the northern Sahara Desert in Ghardaia Province, Algeria. It is located 600 km (370 mi) south of Algiers and there are approximately 360,000 inhabitants (2005 estimate).

The Mozabites or at Mzab are a branch of a large Berber tribe, the Iznaten, which lived in large areas of middle southern Algeria. Many Tifinagh letters and symbols are engraved around the Mzab Valley.

After the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, the Mozabites became Muslims of the Mu'tazili school. After the fall of the Rostemid state, the Rostemid royal family with some of their citizens chose the Mzab Valley as their refuge.

However, the Rostemids were Ibadi and sent a preacher Abu Bakr an-Nafusi who successfully converted the indigenous Mozabites.

Timgad, called Thamugas or Thamugadi in old Berber was a Roman-Berber town in the Aures Mountains of Algeria. It was founded by the Emperor Trajan around AD 100.

The full name of the town was Colonia Marciana Ulpia Traiana Thamugadi. Trajan commemorated the city after his mother Marcia, eldest sister Ulpia Marciana, and father Marcus Ulpius Traianus.

Located in modern-day Algeria, about 35 km east of the town of Batna, the ruins are noteworthy for representing one of the best extant examples of the grid plan as used in Roman city planning.

In the former name of Timgad, Marciana Traiana Thamugadi, the first part - Marciana Traiana - is Roman and refers to the name of its founder, Emperor Trajan and his sister Marciana.

The second part of the name - Thamugadi - has nothing Latin about it. Thamugadi is the Berber name of the place where the city was built, to read Timgad plural form of Tamgut, meaning peak, summit.

Tipasa, was a colonia in Roman province Mauretania Caesariensis, nowadays called Tipaza, and located in coastal central Algeria. Since 2002, it has been declared by UNESCO a "World Heritage Site". There was another city with the same name: Tipasa in Numidia.

Sometimes Tipasa is called Tipasa in Mauretania, because there was another Tipasa in Roman Africa.

Indeed, another town called Tipasa was located in the Roman province of Numidia, the reason why it is referred to as Tipasa in Numidia, is in order to distinguish it from Tipasa in Mauretania.

This second Tipasa is located in what is now Constantine Province, Algeria, 88 km (55 mi) due south of Annaba, 957 m above the sea: it is now called Tifesh. The chief ruin is that of an extensive fortress, the walls of which are 3 metres thick.

Tassili n'Ajjer, is a heavily eroded sandstone rock formation in the Algerian section of the Sahara Desert, situated on a vast plateau, that encompasses south-east Algeria, western Libya and northern Niger.

It features over 300 rock arches, dense clusters of eroded sandstone rock pillars and steep cliffs and gorges where water pools permanently at the surface. Tassili n'Ajjer covers an area of over 72,000 km2 (28,000 sq mi).

Religion in Algeria is dominated by Muslims at about ninety-nine percent of the population. The vast majority of Muslims in Algeria adhere to Sunni Islam of Maliki school of jurisprudence.

There are also almost 100,000 Christians, mostly Pentecostal Protestants. There are nearly 2,000 Jews still living in Algeria, according to the US department of State.

This is a list of the most famous mosques and churches in Algeria:

Djamaa El Djazair or Mosque of Algeria, in Arabic; or Great Mosque of Algeria Is a mosque in the process of completion, located in Mohammedia in Algiers. 7

It is the largest mosque in Algeria and Africa and the third largest mosque in the world in terms of the total area after each of Great Mosque of Mecca in Mecca and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi Mosque in Medina.

Ketchaoua Mosque is a mosque in Algiers, the capital of Algeria. It is located at the foot of the Casbah, which was built during the Ottoman rule in the 17th century, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The mosque that stands on the first of the Casbah's many steep stairways, was logistically and symbolically the cynosure of the pre-colonial city of Algiers. The mosque is noted for its unique fusion of Moorish and Byzantine architecture.

Notre Dame d'Afrique Catholic basilica
Notre-Dame d'Afrique or Our Lady of Africa is a Roman Catholic basilica in Algiers, It was Louis-Antoine-Augustin Pavy, who served as the Bishop of Algiers from 1846 to 1866, who paved the way for its construction.

The basilica was inaugurated in 1872, after fourteen years of construction. It was founded by Charles Lavigerie. Its architect, Jean-Eugene Fromageau, who had been appointed the chief architect for ecclesiastical buildings in French Algeria in 1859, employed a Neo-Byzantine style

Its floor plan is unusual as the choir is situated on the southeast instead of the usual east side of the building.

1st November of 1954 Great Mosque is considered to be the largest mosque in Algeria and the second in Africa It is located in the town of Batna. This imposing religious building has been open to the faithful since 2003 and is one of the great architectural achievements of the city.

The Basilique Saint Augustin (Basilica of St Augustine) is a Roman Catholic basilica and Pro-cathedral dedicated to Saint Augustine of Hippo located in Annaba, Algeria.

The basilica is under the circumscription of the Diocese of Constantine. Construction of the basilica began in 1881 and finished on March 29, 1900, though the church was not dedicated until April 24, 1914.

The statue of St. Augustine in the basilica contains one of his arm bones. It was built not far from the remains of the Basilica Pacis built by Saint Augustine, where he died while the city was besieged by Vandals.

Cathedrale du Sacre-Cœur d'Oran is a Roman Catholic church located on the Place de la Kahina, on Boulevard Hammou-boutlelis, in Oran.

Djama'a al-Djedid, also referred to as the Jamaa al-Jadid, Jamaa El Jedid, or the New Mosque, in Turkish: Yeni Camii, meaning New Mosque, is an Ottoman mosque located in Algiers, the capital of Algeria.

It was built in 1660 in accordance with the traditions of the Hanafi school. During the French colonial rule, the mosque was called the Mosquee de la Pecherie and in English the Mosque of the Fisherman's Wharf.

Great Mosque of Tlemcen was first built in Tlemcen, Algeria in 1082. It is one of the best preserved examples of Almoravid architecture. It was built under sultan Yusuf ibn Tashfin, but substantially reconstructed and enlarged by his son Ali ibn Yusuf.

An inscription dates this reconstruction to 1136. Sultan Yaghmoracen (1236-1283), the founder of the Abdalwadid dynasty of Tlemcen added a section with a minaret and a dome in the 13th century.

Next to the mosque there used to be an Islamic court or Makhama and an Islamic university of considerable fame.

Abdallah Ibn Salam Mosque is a mosque in Algeria. Formerly the Great Synagogue of Oran, it was built in 1880 at the initiative of Simon Kanoui, but its inauguration took place only in 1918.

Sometimes known as Temple Israelite, it is located on the former Boulevard Joffre, currently Boulevard Maata Mohamed El Habib. It was one of the largest synagogues in North Africa.

Once Algeria gained its independence in 1962, almost all Algerian Jews had relocated to France. An estimated 100 to 120 thousand Jews, as well as a million European settlers and 100 thousand Muslim Harkis had fled Algeria choosing to settle in France during the Pied-Noir exodus.

Algerian Jews relocating to France in the 1960s were assigned repatriate status and classed alongside the European settler population owing to the fact that the Jews of Algeria had been French citizens since the Cremieux Decree of 1870.

The Abdallah Ibn Salam mosque is named after a 7th-century Jew from Medina who converted to Islam.

Algeria benefits from important natural assets such as its beaches in general still in the wild, landscapes and zones like the Algerian Desert. There are 10 national parks in Algeria, including the Tassili Cultural Park (100,000 ha) or the Ahaggar Cultural Park (Hoggar) (380,000 ha)

Hiking enthusiasts have access to the vast mountains of Kabylia. Despite what is thought, Algeria also has a ski area in Tikjda as well as spas.

Architecturally, there are strong Berber, Arabic, Spanish and French influences following colonization, but also more contemporary works. The main post office in Algiers remains a remarkable monument of the neo-Moorish type, the work of Jules Voinot and Marius Toudoire.

The Casbah of Algiers is also a place of visit classified as a world heritage of UNESCO since 1982.

Popular tourist sites in Algeria

- Algiers

- Hoggar Mountains in Tamanrasset.

- Constantine

- Oran

- Annaba

- Bejaia

- Timgad

- Jijel

- Tlemcen

- Tikjda

- Tipaza

- Batna

- Ghardaïa

- Sidi Fredj

- Aures

- Djurdjura

- Djanet

- Beni Haoua

- Chréa

- Theniet El Had

- El Kala

National Parks In Algeria

- Ahaggar National Park

- Belezma National Park

- Chrea National Park

- Djurdjura National Park

- El Kala National Park

- Gouraya National Park

- Tassili n'Ajjer National Park

- Taza National Park

- Theniet El Had National Park

- Tlemcen National Park

Museums In Algeria

- Ahmed Zabana National Museum

- Archaeological Museum of Cherchell

- Bardo National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography

- Beni Abbès Museum

- Museum of Antiquities (Algiers)

- Museum of Modern Art of Algiers

- Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions

- Museum of the Revolution

- National Museum of Fine Arts of Algiers

Festivals Celebrated In Algeria

- International Arab Film Festival

- Timgad International Music Festival

- DimaJazz

- International Book Fair of Algiers

- Nuits de la Saoura

- International Cultural Festival of Algerian Symphonic Music

- Arab-African folk dance festival in Tizi Ouzou

- International Fest

The Algerian Sahara is one of the most important tourist destinations in Algeria, the Great South is a flagship destination internationally.

Hiking is not the only way to discover the Sahara, in fact camel rides on a Meharee camel or in a 4x4 vehicle, or even formulas combining hiking, camel trekking and 4x4.

The Algerian Desert is located in north-central Africa and is part of the Sahara Desert. The desert occupies more than four-fifths of the Algerian territory.

Its expansion starts from the Saharan Atlas, more or less as a stony desert and the farther inland you get the more of a sand dune desert it becomes.

In the southwestern parts is the mountain range Tassili n'Ajjer located. This area is a subject of great archaeological interest and was put up on the World Heritage List by UNESCO in 1982.

The area is known for extreme aridity and extreme heat, as daytime temperatures are commonly between 46 °C (113 °F) and 51 °C (122 °F) during the hottest period of the year in most of the desert.

Cities and towns such as Ouargla, Touggourt, Beni Abbes, Adrar, In Salah are among the hottest places on Earth during the height of summer.

Annual average rainfall is well below 100 mm (3,93 in) in the northernmost part but the center and the southern part receive much less than 50 mm (1,96 in) and are therefore hyper-arid and among the driest places on Earth.

Among the best places places of the Sahara that are worth a visit:

- Tamanrasset

- Timimoun

- Djanet

- Ouargla

- Béchar

Algerias Thermal Resorts that you should not miss out:

- Hammam Essalihine

- Hammam Guergour

- Hammam Boughrara

- Hammam Bou Hadjar

- Hammam Meskhoutine

- Hammam Soukhna

- Hammam Righa

- Hammam Melouane

- Hammam Ouled Yelles

Authentic Algerian Cuisine

The cuisine of Algeria is a distinct fusion of Andalusian, Berber, Mediterranean. It's differs slightly from region to region. Every region has its own cuisine, including Kabylie, Algiers and Constantine.

The cuisine of Algeria is part of the Maghreb cuisine tradition of Northwestern Africa.

Algerian Cuisine is influenced by various cultures such as Berber, Arabic and French. Most of the Algerian dishes are centered around lamb or beef, olive oil, fresh vegetables and fresh herbs.

Algerian cuisine differs slightly from region to region. Every region has its own cuisine, including Kabylie, Algiers (couscous) and Constantine. Algerian Cuisine is influenced by various cultures such as Berber, Andalusian, Ottoman, Arabic and French.

It is a very rich cuisine but it still is not known around the world. Most of the Algerian dishes are centered around bread, lamb, beef or poultry, olive oil, fresh vegetables and fresh herbs.

Traditionally, no Algerian meal is complete without bread, traditional bread is almost always made with semolina, french bread is also widespread.

Pork consumption is forbidden to devout Muslim inhabitants of Algeria in accordance with Sharia, religious laws of Islam.

Algeria, like other Maghreb countries, produces a large range of Mediterranean fruits and vegetables and even some tropical ones. Lamb is commonly consumed. Mediterranean seafood and fish are also eaten and produced by the little inshore fishing.

Vegetables that are commonly used include potatoes (batata/betetè), carrots (zrodiya), Turnip (laft), onions (bsel), tomatoes (tomatish/tømètish), zucchini (corget/qar'a), garlic (ethom), cabbages (cromb), eggplant (badenjan), Olives (zéton) , pennyroyal (fliou), Cardoon (kourchef) , broad bean (fool), Chickpea (homoss) and of course Chili pepper (felfel)

Vegetables are often used in stews jwaz/djwizza and soups or chorba or simply fried or boiled.

The Kesra, traditional Algerian flatbread, is the base of Algerian cuisine and eaten at many meals. A popular Algerian meal is merguez, an originally Berber sausage.

A common and one of the most favorite dishes of Algerian cuisine is couscous, with other favorites such as shakshouka, Karantita, marqa bel a'assel, a speciality from Tlemcen, and chakhchoukha which is very popular.

Spices used in Algerian cuisine are dried red chillies of different kinds, caraway, Arabian ras el hanout, black pepper and cumin, among others.

Algerians also use tagines, handmade in Algeria. Frequently Algerian food is cooked in clay vessels, much like Maghrib cuisine. Algerian cuisine represents the region north of the Sahara desert and west of the Nile.

Algerian chefs take a lot of pride in cooking skills and methods and their many secrets lie in the variety of ways they mix special spices.

There are many different types of Algerian salads, influenced by the French and Turkish, which may include beetroot or anchovies. There are also dishes of Spanish origin in Algeria, like the Gaspacho Oranais, an Algerian version of a Manchego dish.

Other dishes

- Shakshuka.

- Bagita (baguette) – a French bread staple food

- Shakshouka, chakshoka, shakhshosha – fried vegetables and egg on top

- Frites (omelet) – fries and egg on top

- Dolma, stuffed vegetables cooked in a stock

- Jwaz, a stew consisting of vegetables, potatoes, carrots, onions, or tomatoes and meat, sometimes Navy beans ,kidney beans are included; it is a peasant food

- Lobia, fasolada eaten in the winter a thick Stew of beans and chunks of carrots and potatoes, there is many versions of this with lentils, kidney beans and other legumes

- Chtit'ha, eaten during wedding parties, consists of meat, onions and chickpeas in a red stock of tomatoes

- Shlada bsel, onion salad includes tomatoes, seasoned with olive oil and lemon juice

Sweets like seasonal fruits are typically served at the end of meals. Common pastries include makroudh, Kalb Elouz and Zlabiya. eaten during the month of Ramadan and some pastries are prepared for special occasions like for Eid-al-fitr and weddings.

Tea is generally drunk in the afternoon and for ceremonies with pastries. Algerians are heavy coffee consumers and thick espresso black coffee is very popular.

Fruit juice and soft drinks are very common and are often drunk daily. Algeria previously produced a large quantity of wine during the French colonization but production has decreased since its independence,but there are some secular activist that want to produce wine again.

Between 1976 and 1984, the average Algerian family spent around 56% of their income on food and drink, and more than 10% of that number was spent on bread and other cereal products.

Bread is thought to contain God’s blessing, baraka. It is traditionally seen as a symbol of life and functions in rituals symbolic of life, fertility and abundance.

Khubz as-dar: wheat flour, water, salt and yeast. Traditionally flat and round, a few centimeters thick, made at home and commonly baked in a gas oven or communal oven.

Khubz at-tajin or matlu: wheat semolina, yeast, water and salt. Flattened pan-bread or galette in french, baked in a previously heated earthenware or cast-iron plate on a fire. Variations are made by the quality of the leavening agent, by adding barley or sorghum, bran, or by making it corn-based.

Khubz-ftir, raqaq, rfis or tarid: well-kneaded, unleavened dough, baked for half a minute on a convex sheet of brass or iron, balanced on stones over a fire. This is a preferred method for those living nomadic lives due to easy transportation of pan and little amount of fuel necessary.

French baguettes: white, leavened wheat flour. Bought at bakery or street vendor, but never made at home due to access to mills powered by electricity. Power shortages prevent consumption of this bread, and often Algerians turn to home-made breads that are milled by women’s hands.

French bread tends to be given more value in terms of taste and quality in that it was commonly associated to being more suitable to higher standards.

However, the white inner parts of a baguette are thought to be unhealthy and will regularly be thrown away, and the bread is frequently associated to constipation. Algerian breads, on the other hand, are considered more nutritive, rich and tasteful and seldom go to waste.

Because French breads harden over night or become chewy when put away in plastic bags, it is hard to find usage for them, so they are thrown away with more frequency than Algerian breads that can be reheated or reutilized as edible food utensils or even bird feed.

In the context of rituals, only Algerian bread is thought suitable. Breads offered to guests should be homemade, as it signifies the essence, intimacy, and qualities of the family.

In daily practices, it is also a sign of wealth and affluence if one has extra bread at the table, and making bread at home can be considered a sign of familial economic independence

Traditionally, no Algerian meal is complete without bread, normally a long French baguette or more traditionally a flat semolina bread.

Pork consumption is forbidden to devout Muslim inhabitants of Algeria in accordance with Sharia, religious laws of Islam.

Algeria, like other Maghreb countries, produces a large range of Mediterranean fruits and vegetables and even some tropical ones.

Lamb is commonly consumed. Mediterranean seafood and fish are also eaten and produced by the little inshore fishing.

Algerians consume a high amount of meat, as it is found in almost every dish. Mutton is the most eaten meat in the country, Poultry and beef are also used.

Uncommon types of meat such as game, birds and venison and they are considered a delicacy, wild boar is also hunted and eaten, but pork will not be available on stores, it can only be bought from hunters directly.

Vegetables that are commonly used include potatoes (batata/betete), carrots (zrodiya), onions (bsel), tomatoes (tomatish/tømetish), zucchini (corget/qar'a), garlic (ethom), cabbages (cromb), and eggplant (badenjan). Olives (zeton) are also used.

Vegetables are often used in stews (jwaz/djwizza) and soups (chorba) or simply fried or boiled.

The Kesra, traditional Algerian flatbread, is the base of Algerian cuisine and eaten at many meals. A popular Algerian meal is merguez, an originally Berber sausage.

A common and one of the most favorite dishes of Algerian cuisine is couscous, with other favorites such as shakshouka, Karantita, marqa bel a'assel, a speciality from Tlemcen, and the dish chakhchoukha.

Spices used in Algerian cuisine are dried red chillies of different kinds, caraway, Arabian ras el hanout, black pepper and cumin, among others.

Algerians also use tagines, handmade in Algeria. Frequently Algerian food is cooked in clay vessels, much like Maghrib cuisine.

Algerian cuisine represents the region north of the Sahara desert and west of the Nile. Algerian chefs take a lot of pride in cooking skills and methods and their many secrets lie in the variety of ways they mix special spices.

There are many different types of Algerian salads, influenced by the French and Turkish, which may include beetroot or anchovies. There are also dishes of Spanish origin in Algeria, like the Gaspacho Oranais, an Algerian version of a Manchego dish.

Northern Algeria is in the temperate zone and enjoys a mild, Mediterranean climate. It lies within approximately the same latitudes as southern California and has somewhat similar climatic conditions.

Its broken topography, however, provides sharp local contrasts in both prevailing temperatures and incidence of rainfall. Year-to-year variations in climatic conditions are also common. This area, the most inhabited in Algeria, is commonly referred to as the Tell.

As the tenth-largest country in the world, and the largest in Africa and in the Mediterranean region, Algeria has a vast transportation system which include many transportation infrastructures.


Tourism Observer