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The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu in collaboration with Lumbini Development Trust organized a large-scale Yoga demonstration in Lumbini – the revered birthplace of Lord Buddha and a UNESCO World Heritage Site—today on the eve of International Yoda Day.

Lumbini Province Chief Krishna Bahadur Gharti and Minister of Youth and Sports of Nepal Teju Lal Chaudhary graced the event as Chief Guests.

They thanked the Embassy of India for organizing this significant event at the sacred birthplace of Lord Buddha and for strengthening cultural ties between India and Nepal. 

On the occasion, Indian Ambassador to Nepal Shri Naveen Srivastava highlighted that Yoga, an ancient practice with its origins in India, has grown into a global movement, particularly following the United Nations' declaration of 21 June as the International Day of Yoga in 2014, reads a statement issued by the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu.

He remarked that Lumbini, widely regarded as a symbol of peace and harmony, provides a truly fitting setting to celebrate the timeless values of Yoga. The ambassador also expressed his gratitude to the Lumbini Development Trust for their support in organizing the event and underscored the role it plays in promoting Lumbini as a spiritual and religious destination, according to the statement.

The event was a part of a series of events being conducted by the Embassy of India to celebrate the 11th International Day of Yoga across various cities in Nepal.  

Meanwhile, the Embassy of India, in association with the Pokhara Metropolitan City, will organize a mega Yoga demonstration at the Pokhara Rangsala Stadium tomorrow to celebrate the 11th International Day of Yoga.

Senior officials of the Lumbini Development Trust and more than 500 Yoga enthusiasts from the region participated in the event.

In the thin air of Upper Mustang, a camera trap clicks. Somewhere in 770,000 square miles of mountains that spread across a number of Asian countries—an area larger than Mexico—one of the world’s 4,000 remaining snow leopards has just walked past.

Finding that single image among thousands of photos captured by the camera trap used to take park rangers hours of manual review. Now it happens automatically, with the help of AI.

Snow leopards are known as the ghost of the mountains. They slip across international boundaries as easily as rocky ridges, leaving barely a paw print in snow that could melt by morning. Tracking these apex predators is essential to inform the protections of both the species and their habitats. It also means deploying camera traps across the world’s most rugged terrain, then drowning in the data they produce.

Nepal alone operates nearly 800 camera traps. Each generates thousands of images every few months. Every hour spent reviewing photos is an hour not spent in the field preventing poaching, managing wildfires, or working with communities.

To tackle the vast camera trap data, Tencent developed “Eye of the Species”, an AI model to enhance conservation efforts. The system identifies snow leopards from thousands of images with up to 98 percent accuracy—and it works offline in the world's most remote locations. The model doesn't just find snow leopards. It recognizes 286 species and counting, with plans to reach 2,000 by 2025.

Unlike traditional single-species recognition models, this model doesn’t require extensive data to learn new species, reducing setup costs by 70 percent. It makes it a scalable tool for broader wildlife conservation efforts across different regions and species.

Originally developed for snow leopard studies in China, the model has been adapted for use in Nepal. The Tencent team recently hosted a workshop with Nepal’s National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) and China’s ShanShui Conservation Center to introduce this system to conservationists from Nepal, Mongolia, Pakistan, and other regions. The next time a camera clicks in the Himalayas, the rangers will be ready.

The cross-border cooperation mirrors the snow leopards themselves: conservation that ignores human boundaries to protect animals that never recognized them in the first place.

Yao Ma, Conservation Officer, Tencent Sustainable Social Value Organization said : The reason we focus on snow leopards is twofold. Snow leopard numbers, a strong indicator of climate change, are incredibly low. Secondly, their habitat spans multiple countries across some of the most remote and difficult terrain on earth.”
CP Pokharel, Conservation Director, National Trust for Nature Conservation said that  “AI could help us analyze data faster and more rigorously, picking out not just snow leopards but also prey species from massive image datasets.”

Seven cases of malaria were detected in Chitwan district in the current fiscal year. 

Such a number of malaria patients was found in the course of conducting a sample test of 7,989 people who visited the District Public Health Office, Chitwan, for the suspected malaria infection. 

Vector Control Inspector Ram KC said the infection was seen in the people returned from overseas employment. A total of 10 people were infected from malaria last fiscal year. 

Specially, people aged above 15 years suffer from this disease. 

Malaria is mostly transmitted to people from the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. 

Fever, headache, vomiting, and tiredness are symptoms of malaria.  

KC said it was necessary to keep the surroundings clean, sleep under mosquito nets to be protected from mosquito bites.

Besisahar-Chame road, the only roadway connecting Lamjung and Manang, has been blocked due to a landslide at Marsyangdi Rural Municipality- 4 this morning.

Naveen Bista, Information Officer of the Dumre-Besisahar-Chame Road Project Office, said, "The land with large rocks has blocked the road, stranding vehicles on the way."

According to him, it will take time to clear the road because of the immense size of the landslide. 

A landslide had blocked the road near that location on June 18.