Tourism in Madagascar takes a beating - no visitors to watch the lemurs

Madagascar depends a lot on tourists to boost up its economy and the Lemurs' Park near Madagascar's capital is touted to be one of the city's top attractions, but it is not getting enough number of visitors. Right now, it is the high season and, only a handful of tourists are seen in the park to get a glimpse of the furry creatures unique to the tropical forests of this vast Indian Ocean Island as the ring-tailed lemurs scamper through nearby eucalyptus trees.
This has been reported in ibnlive.com dated 3 August 2015.

A section of tour operators blame this to the mass cancellations that followed a month-long Air Madagascar strike kept all internal flights grounded. Tourists used to arrive in large numbers during 2008, but there was political unrest since 2009 and that has affected tourism.
Of course, the authorities want to reverse the trend. It is promoting its rainforests, reefs and weird and wonderful plants and animals and are aiming for 1 million tourists by 2020. This would be five times higher than last year and more than double the 2008 peak, when 380,000 people visited the former French colony.
They want to showcase Madagascar as a ‘honeymoon’ destination like Mauritius and Seychelles.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

Some more interesting 'must reads'-

Gold smuggling route to India via London - courtesy airline staff

Rat inside Air India’s Dreamliner forces it to abort flight to Milan and return to Delhi

How to improve digestion through proper food items


Ajay Devgn - new look in Drishyam

Salman Khan’s ‘Bajrangi Bhaijan’ is the talk of the town – the cash box is ringing

Jena Malone to appear in the role of Batgirl in Batman v Superman


Gun battle in Multan – Pakistan police eliminate Sunni militant leader and 13 others

Man of Agra kills four minor girls to cure his mentally ill wife on advice of tantrik

ISIS targets Indians in Libya – four teachers returning to India kidnapped


Influence of Bengali culture on Hindi movies

Prawns are the prized catch of the kitchen

How green is our Indian food menu

India dives deep into the Indian Ocean to search for gold

India has set in motion an ambitious project to explore for mineral deposits and precious metals, especially like gold and silver in the Southern Indian Ocean. This activity for search of polymetallic sulphide would be done in the Rodriguez Triple Junction RTJ which is a geological junction near Mauritius. It is in the southern Indian Ocean where three tectonic plates meet.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 30 June 2015.

Authority to undertake the exploration has been granted the International Seabed Authority (ISA). This is an autonomous international organization that had been established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
A informed by scientists at the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), Goa – our country has been granted 10,000sqkm near RTJ for seabed exploration of polymetallic sulphide. This is a mineral deposit with three or more metals in commercial quantities. The license to conduct the work would be valid for 15 years and it was granted in 2014.
Incidentally, polymetallic sulphide usually holds copper, iron and lead, apart from gold and silver in lesser quantities.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

A few more must reads -
Skinny jeans a health hazard as an Adelaide woman found out in the park

Good news from the Cold War front – Putin rings up Obama in the White House

Agra Railway Police sends 109 persons to jail for committing nuisance on railway property

Thieves in UP steal nine buffaloes from BJP MLA’s farmhouse

No more cold drinks or junk food for Amarnath Yatra


Six women vanish from Ohio – suspected to be victims of serial killing

France paralyzed by taxi drivers strike – grouse against Uber cabs lead to chaos

Two girl suicide bombers kill at least 30 in Nigerian market


Disguises in Indian movies and TV

Movies on rebirth – hot favorites of Bollywood