Omkareshwar

Omkareshwar, originally uploaded by Soumitra Agnihotri.

Omkareshwar, an island in the course of the River Narmada in Madhya Pradesh, is home to the Omkareshwar Jyotirlinga shrine and the Amareshwar temple.

Temple of Omkareshwar at night

Temple d'Omkareshwar, India, originally uploaded by mafate69.

Evolution: White Tiger

Photo: sleeping white tiger at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, Louisiana (April, 2003).

White tigers are neither albino, nor do they constitute a separate subspecies and they can breed with orange or brown ones, although approximately half of the resulting offspring will be heterozygous for the recessive white gene and their fur will be orange. But if the orange parent was itself already a heterozygous tiger, which would give each cub a 50 per cent chance of being either double recessive white or heterozygous orange. If two heterozygous tigers or heterozygote breed, on average, 25 per cent of their offspring will be white, 50 per cent will be heterozygous orange (with white genes) and 25 per cent will be homozygous orange (with no white genes).

In the 1970s a pair of heterozygous orange tigers produced 13 cubs in Alipore Zoo, India, out of which 3 were white tiger cubs. If two white tigers breed 100 per cent of their cubs will be homozygous white tigers. A tiger which is homozygous for the white gene may also be heterozygous or homozygous for many different genes. The question whether a tiger is heterozygous (a heterozygote) or homozygous (a homozygote) depends on which gene is being discussed. Inbreeding promotes homozygosis and this fact has been used as a strategy to breed white tigers in captivity.

From the casual way that Jim Corbett makes reference to a white tigress, which he filmed with two orange cubs, in his ‘Man-Eaters of Kumaon’ (1946), it is suggested that white tigers were nothing out of the ordinary to him. Corbett's black and white film footage is probably the only film in existence of a white tiger in the wild. It illustrates again that white tigers survived and reproduced in the wild. The film was used in a National Geographic documentary ‘Man-eaters of India’ (1984), about Corbett's life, based on his 1957 book by the same title.

White tigers with dark stripes were recorded as living in the wild in India during the Mughal Empire (1556-1605). A painting from 1590 of Akbar while hunting near Gwalior depicts four tigers, two of which appear white.

The Journal of The Bombay Natural History Society reported 17 white tigers shot between 1907 and 1933: in several separate locations in Orissa, Bilaspur, Sohagpur and Rewa.

On January 22, 1939, the Prime Minister of Nepal shot a white tiger at Barda camp in Terai, Nepal. The last observed wild white tiger was shot in 1958, and the mutation is believed to be extinct in the wild.

Arthur Locke mentions white tigers in ‘The Tigers Of Trengganu’ (1954).

E.P. Gee collected accounts of 35 white tigers from the wild up to 1959, with still more uncounted from Assam where he had his tea plantation. Some white tigers in the wild had reddish stripes known as ‘red tigers’. The Boga-bagh, or ‘white tiger’, Tea Estate in upper Assam, was named that after two white tigers that were shot there in the early 1900s.

In India, the Rewa hunters' diaries recorded 9 white tigers in the fifty years prior to 1960.

One theory of white tigers holds that they were symptomatic of inbreeding as a consequence of over hunting and habitat loss, as tiger populations became isolated.

White Tiger in Miami Metrozoo

Miami Metrozoo -White Tiger, originally uploaded by b-a-boop.

Watch this white tiger found in captivity, in Miami MetroZoo, spread over 740 acres (3.0 squire km), is the largest and oldest zoological garden in Florida. It is located in southern unincorporated Miami-Dade County southwest of the city of Miami and west of the village of Palmetto Bay. It houses over 1,200 wild animals and is the only subtropical zoo in the continental United States.

Sweet pea flowers of Meghalaya

Sweet Peas never look so sweet., originally uploaded by ner_luv.

Though the flowers of sweet pea are very beautiful as found in Meghalaya, seeds of many varieties of plants of the genus Lathyrus, including sweet pea, are toxic if eaten in quantity, unlike edible pea. A related pea species, Lathyrus sativus, is grown for human consumption but when it forms a major part of the diet it causes symptoms of toxicity called lathyrism. Sweet pea ingestion, it is believed, causes similar symptoms called odoratism or sweet pea lathyrism due to formation of collagen. The symptoms are similar to scurvy and copper deficiency which share the common feature of inhibiting proper formation of collagen fibrils. Seeds of the sweet pea contain beta-aminopropionitrile that prevents the cross linking of collagen by inhibiting lysyl oxidase, leading to loose skin. Recent experiments have attempted to develop this chemical as a treatment to avoid disfiguring skin contractions after skin grafting.

Sweet pea flower

Another shot of Sweet pea, originally uploaded by ner_luv.

Sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus), an annual climbing plant, growing to a height of 1-2 meter, is a flowering plant belonging to the genus Lathyrus in the family Fabaceae (legumes). It is originally native to the eastern Mediterranean region from Sicily east to Crete. The leaves are pinnate with two leaflets and a terminal tendril which twines around supporting plants and structures helping the sweet pea to climb. The flowers are generally purple, 2 cm to 3.5 cm broad in the wild plant and larger and very variable in colour in the many cultivated plants. They are often grown by gardeners for their bright colours and the sweet fragrance that gives the name ‘sweet pea’. Watch this variety from the Indian state of Meghalaya.

Narmada River flows through Marble Rocks

Photo: Narmada flows through Marble Rocks

CLICK the photo to enlarge it. You can save and use it as a wallpaper (size: 1600x1200)

‘Marble Rocks’ is a gorge on the Narmada River in central India where the river narrows to a width of 10 meters and carves very deep through a large area of white marble, creating a beautiful gorge of about 3 km in length. The Marble Rocks is located near the city of Jabalpur in the Madhya Pradesh state of India. It is a very popular tourist destination.

The River Narmada originates from a small tank called Narmada Kund located on the Amarkantak hill at a height of 1,057 metres (3,467.8 ft) above sea level, in Anuppur District of Madhya Pradesh. The river descends from the Amarkantak hill range at the Kapildhara falls over a cliff and flows through rocks and islands up to the ruined palace of Ramnagar. Between Ramnagar and Mandla (25 km) the course is comparatively straight, and then it flows northeast in a narrow loop towards Jabalpur city.

Near Jabalpur, there is a fall of 9 metre (29.5 ft), called Dhuandhara (the fall of mist). From there it flows for 3 km (1.9 miles) through a deep narrow gorge in the magnesium limestone and basalt rocks called the Marble Rocks which has a width of about 90 metres (295.3 ft) at the top, narrowing down to 18 metres (59.1 ft) at the bottom of the gorge through which the river flows.

Considering its size, Marble Rocks is perhaps the only one place in the world where a river near its origin cuts through very hard marble and meanders around hills and gorges. At some places in the gorge, while you travel through the river in a boat, you can see interesting shapes and figures resembling artistic sculptures on the marble through which the river has cut and made the gorge in the course of centuries of flowing through the marble. Boats are available on hire for visitors at very reasonable rates.

While travelling from Jabalpur to Marble Rocks, visitors can also reach Dhuandhara and Chausath Yogini temple (temple of sixty four yoginis) which are on the way. The ancient temple situated on the top of a small hill houses the idols of sixty four yoginis, all of which are broken due to vandalism by invaders in the past. The broken pieces are kept by the side of the broken idols.

After Marble Rocks, Narmada river enters its first fertile basin and flows westwards over a length of 1,312 km (815.2 mi) before draining through the Gulf of Cambey (Khambat) into the Arabian Sea, 30 km (18.6 miles) west of Bharuch city of Gujarat. It is the largest west-flowing river and the only river in India that flows in a rift valley flowing west between the Satpura and Vindhya ranges, although the Tapti River and Mahi River also flow through rift valleys but between different ranges.

The Narmada River valley is extremely important for paleontological studies. Several dinosaur fossils have been found in the area including Titanosaurus indicus found in 1877 by Richard Lydekker and the recently discovered Rajasaurus narmadensis.

Kanha National Park located in the upper reaches of Narmada, about 18 km (11.2 miles) from Mandla, has several species of wild animals including tigers. Two tributaries of Narmada, Hallon and Banjar, flow through this park. It is one of the best National Parks of Asia which has been described vividly by Rudyard Kipling in his famous ‘Jungle Book’.

Jabalpur is well connected by road, rail and air. Jabalpur Airport, known as Dumna Airport, is about 20 km from the city. Jabalpur is connected by road to most of the Indian cities. Jabalpur is the headquarters of West Central Railways and is connected by trains from Mumbai, New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Kolkata, Vadodara, Patna, Lucknow, Chennai, Bangalore, Nagpur, Pune, Jaipur, Jammu, Hyderabad, Varanasi and Goa.

The best things to do and see in Toronto

Toronto, often described as a global city, is the largest city and the economic capital of Canada and one of the top financial centres in the world. If you plan a visit, a search in specialized search sites such as Canada 411 on the various attractions will help you to plan your visit, as Toronto has often been compared to New York City as the city that never sleeps north of the border. A few places that one must visit are below.

The 1,815 feet high CN Tower, a prominent landmark of Toronto, held the record of the tallest free-standing land structure in the world for over 30 years. Visitors can reach the top of the tower in an elevator with glass walls to view the panorama of the city and areas beyond.

Another unforgettable experience will be a visit to the Harbourfront & Toronto Islands. Yet another attraction is the Niagara Falls on the Niagara River on the border between the United States and Canada. With more than 6 million cubic feet of water falling every minute it is the most powerful and massive waterfall in North America and the best-known in the world.

Toronto is famous for its events and festivals. At the Exhibition Place on the Toronto lakeshore, every August the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), the largest and most successful fair of its kind in the entire North America, is considered an important part of the culture of Toronto and Canada itself. The other attractions are the City Hall & Nathan Phillips Square, Casa Loma, Rogers Centre/Skydome, Chinatown, Hockey Hall of Fame, and the St. Lawrence Market.

Also you will not like to miss The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), the Toronto Zoo, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, the Ontario Science Centre, the Textile Museum, and many more such venues.

The Yorkville neighbourhood, one of the most elegant shopping and dining areas, is visited by tourists and even celebrities from all over North America, and the whole world, especially during the Toronto International Film Festival.

For your comfortable stay in Toronto there are some of the finest hotels such as Delta Chelsea Hotel, The Fairmont Royal York, Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, The Westin Harbour Castle, Hotel Victoria, and many more to suit every budget. Also there are many nightclubs and restaurants for those who like a memorable nightlife experience. For transport, taxis are aplenty, or one can rely upon the efficient Toronto Public Transportation system.

Jim Corbett

Photo: Jim Corbett with the slain tiger, Bachelor of Powalgarh

Jim Corbett (Edward James Corbett), born on 25 July 1875 in Nainital in the Indian State of Uttarakhand, was a hunter of Irish ancestry. He was a conservationist, naturalist, photographer and writer famous for killing a large number of man-eating tigers and leopards that had killed people in the villages of the Garhwal and Kumaon regions in India.

According to Wikipedia, though Jim Corbett held the rank of colonel in the British Indian Army and worked for the Bengal and North Western Railway, often he was called upon by the government to slay man-eating tigers and leopards. According to records, between 1907 and 1938 Corbett had shot dead man-eaters such as the Champawat Tiger, the Leopard of Rudraprayag, the Tigers of Chowgarh and the Panar Leopard. These man-eating big cats, 19 tigers and 14 leopards, had killed more than 1200 men, women and children.

As he had great admiration for tigers and leopards, he resolved never to shoot them unless they turned man-eaters or posed threats otherwise. However, by his own account, Corbett had shot the wrong animal at least once, and he greatly regretted the incident. Man-eaters are quite capable of stalking the hunter. So Corbett preferred to hunt alone travelling on foot while pursuing dangerous game. At times, Corbett took dangerous personal risks to save the lives of others.

Corbett was deeply concerned about the fate of tigers and their habitat. So he used to lecture to groups of school children about natural heritage, the need to conserve forests and wildlife. Along with F. W. Champion he played a key role in establishing India's first national park, the Hailey National Park in the Kumaon Hills. Later the park was renamed in his honour as Corbett National Park by the Indian government in 1957.

In 1968, one of the five remaining subspecies of tigers, the Indochinese Tiger, which was also called Corbett's tiger, was named after him as Panthera tigris corbetti. The famous books written by Corbett are: Man-eaters of Kumaon, The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag, My India, Jungle Lore, The Temple Tiger and more man-eaters of Kumaon, Man against man-eaters, and Tree Tops.

After 1947, Corbett and his sister Maggie retired to Nyeri, Kenya, where he continued to write and sound alarm about declining numbers of jungle cats and other wildlife. After retirement, Corbett authored the Man-Eaters of Kumaon, Jungle Lore and other books recounting his hunts and experiences. He also advocated for the protection India's wildlife from extinction.

Jim Corbett died of a heart attack after he finished writing his sixth book Tree Tops, and was buried at St. Peter's Anglican Church in Nyeri.

An exciting vacation rental exchange program

Here is an exciting opportunity to owners of second homes who are mostly not making the best use of their second homes. Sometimes simply they are too busy to visit their second homes, or they want to get away to a different location for a better and exciting getaway experience. But many a times they may not find one unless they want to burn a hole in their pockets. The website 3rd Home is filling that void by taking care of your need for such a vacation, a third home for you, anywhere in the world at any time at the click of a mouse button. Simply put, it is a home exchange website that allows you exchange your second home with other luxurious vacation houses so that you can enjoy the exclusive access to some of the best resorts and private destinations in the world.

The goal of 3rd Home is very simple: creating the finest, luxury second home exchange program in the world. In doing so, they also keep up the highest industry standards. What all you need to do is join them and become eligible to use the second homes of other members like you. The availability of such luxurious vacation homes, locations, and the facilities that you get there are listed in the site. Also you are free to check with other members and find out all that you want to know, in addition to the information that you get from their site.

The company is managed by professionals with vast experience in real estate and vacation property management. That means you, your second home, and your need for a luxurious third home will be taken care of in the best possible way. If you are looking for home exchange, you will be excited to know that some of their most popular destinations for vacation rentals by owners are located at such locations as Miami, Florida, Palm Springs, California, and Nantucket Massachusetts. Their members have houses ranging from mansions on Miami Beach and beach villas in Mexico to upscale lofts in France and log homes in Colorado.

That means you get exclusive access to the finest vacation homes and villas at some of the most sought after holiday resorts and private destinations in the world. So, instead of keeping your second homes idle or underutilized, make the best out of them and enjoy the best of vacations without burning a hole in your pockets.