Your photos or photos of other people. Photos of animals or anything else. Photos with strong atmosphere for you.

I would prefer your photos. They doesnt have to be professional, perfect or hyper-impressive. More importnant it that they are YOURS.

As mentioned in the thread for the Asiatic lion, Reginald Innes Pocock had published the book "The Fauna Of British India Including Ceylon And Burma Mammalia (Volume 1)", in which he talked about the Asiatic lion, as well as African lions to a lesser extent. In pages 218–220, he mentioned that Captain Smee thought that Gujarati or Indian lions differed from African lions by their smaller manes. Pocock reckoned that Captain Smee's conception of African lions having bigger manes was probably due to specimens kept at European menageries (which can have thicker manes than wild lions), or due to the heavy manes of Barbary lions from Algeria or Cape lions from what was the Cape Colony, which had often been exported to Europe for exhibition in the early part of the 19th century. This thread is dedicated to the Cape lion of modern South Africa, which was the type specimen for the Southern subspecies of lions in Southern and Eastern Africa, which were given the trinomen Panthera leo melanochaita by the Cat Specialist Group in 2017, like how the Barbary lion of the Maghreb (Northwest Africa) was the type specimen for the Northern subspecies of lions in northern parts of Africa and Eurasia (particularly India), which was given the trinomen Panthera leo leo.

Credit: Pocock, 1939
   
   
   

The Cape Colony (Dutch: Kaapkolonie) was a British colony in what is now South Africa, named after the Cape of Good Hope. The British colony was preceded by an earlier Dutch colony of the same name, the Kaap de Goede Hoop, established in 1652 by the Dutch East India Company. The Cape was under Dutch rule from 1652 to 1795 and again from 1803 to 1806. The Dutch lost the colony to Great Britain following the 1795 Battle of Muizenberg, but had it returned following the 1802 Peace of Amiens. It was re-occupied by the UK following the Battle of Blaauwberg in 1806, and British possession affirmed with the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814. The Cape of Good Hope then remained in the British Empire, becoming self-governing in 1872, and uniting with three other colonies to form the Union of South Africa in 1910. It then was renamed the Province of the Cape of Good Hope. Following the 1994 creation of the present-day South African provinces, the Cape Province was partitioned into the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, and Western Cape, with smaller parts in North West province.

Map of the Cape Colony by John George Bartholomew in 1885: https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/histo...a_1885.jpg
   

As having only topics about particular antelopes, may be it would be useful to open a new one about antelopes and gazelles in general...

Marlon du Toit: " A most regal of antelope - the Kudu bull. He tucks his magnificent horns back across his strong shoulder blades & feeds on the greener parts of this shrub.

Kudu are browsers & are often first affected when the times get tough. The late dry season can severely impact them. They are big & need good feeding grounds.
What’s great to see in this image is that the height of the Kudu allows him to browse much higher than most. Look at how much leaf-matter has been fed on throughout the lower half of this shrub. Most is gone. This is thanks to animals such as impala, numerous on the Mana floodplain. But, the tall powerful Kudu can stretch his neck & reach much higher, putting himself beyond competition & within reach of the best leaves on offer.
It’s a stunning antelope. "

Southeast Africa or Southeastern Africa is a region that is intermediate between Eastern Africa (which partially includes Northeast Africa) and Southern Africa (which includes what was known as Southwest Africa). It comprises the countries Botswana, Burundi, Eswatini (Swaziland), Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, in the mainland, with the island-nation of Madagascar also included. All lions in this region are of the Southern subspecies (Panthera leo melanochaita), with the possible exception of those in the northern parts of Uganda and Kenya in East Africa, which are apparently where the range of the Southern subspecies overlaps with that of the Northern subspecies (Panthera leo leo), see this thread for more details.

Kafue National Park, Zambia; credit: Hunt Forever
   

Masai Mara National Park, in the Kenyan part of the Serengeti ecoregion; credit: Robert Harding
   

Two Brothers
2004 ‧ Drama/Adventure ‧ 1h 49m

Two tiger cubs, one shy and gentle and the other bold and fierce, are separated when one is sold to the circus. Years later, they are reunited by a hunter played by Guy Pearce.

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What is the maximum prey size (e.g. weight, physical dimensions, etc.) that a single male lion or tiger can take alone without being in groups? Up to the size of a buffalo bull?

a - Introduction

The, often illegal, trade in wildlife products is enormous. Experts think the value is about $20 billion a year. According to them, there are millions of snares in the forests in southeastern Asia. It isn't much different in many parts of Africa. 

Snares do not distinguish between animals. If an animal is caught, it's doomed.   

One direct result of poaching is empty forests. Another is some species face extinction. In one decade only, thousands of tigers have been poached in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Sumatra and Malaysia. In Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, tigers are now gone. In Malaysia, tigers are severely threatened. Same for Myanmar and Sumatra.  

Poaching also affects humans in that direct contact and consumption of wild animals not seldom results in disease. In Africa, a direct connection between the consumption of wild animals and viruses affecting humans has been proven. In Asia, it isn't any different.  

b - Thread purpose

The aim of this thread is to collect good information about the connection between poaching, trafficking and disease. Anything goes, provided it results in knowledge and understanding.

2020: India to cross 100GW renewable energy mark 
Presently, the issues hampering growth of renewables in India are lack of interest of financial institution to fund renewable energy projects, safeguard duty on imported solar panels, ambiguity over goods and services tax (GST) on solar equipment.

The PM-KUSUM scheme had three components -- 10,000 megawatts (MW) of decentralised ground mounted grid-connected renewable power plants (Component-A); installation of 200, 000 standalone solar powered agriculture pumps (Component-B); and solarisation of 100, 000 grid-connected solar powered agriculture pumps (Component-C).


India is all set to cross the 100GW renewable energy capacity mark in 2020 & can make rapid strides towards the ambitious 175GW clean energy target by 2022, provided the government keeps a close eye on key issues and deals with those well in time.

The government however needs to promote storage to ensure 24X7 clean energy supply as coal fired thermal power still remains the base load in the country.

Presently, the issues hampering growth of renewables in India are lack of interest of financial institution to fund renewable energy projects, safeguard duty on imported solar panels, ambiguity over goods and services tax (GST) on solar equipment and low investor sentiment due to delayed or non-payment by discoms to clean energy developers.
India's installed renewable energy generation capacity touched around 86GW by November-end. This includes solar, wind, small hydro, biomass, waste to energy.

Around 30GW renewable capacity including 18GW solar and 10GW wind energy is under implementation. Besides, around 40 GW including 36GW solar and 3.4GW wind energy, is being tendered.

"Together with other schemes being implemented by the government, I expect RE (Renewable Energy) sector to get a big boost in 2020 and the years thereafter. I expect our RE capacity to cross 100GW mark in 2020," Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh told.
Singh said, "Our initiatives in 2020 will be aimed at achieving RE targets by providing an environment of policy certainty. Our efforts will be to minimise the risks and promote ease of doing business for investors, manufacturers and other stakeholders."

The government also needs to focus on storage of renewables based on rapidly improving technologies. The minister said storage is necessary not only for the growth of RE sector but is also a pre-condition to reduce our dependence on conventional energy resources like hydrocarbons and coal which are exhaustible and polluting.
The industry wants the government to bring a storage policy for over 100GW capacity to encourage private players to invest in the segment. It would encourage private players to set up storage facilities.
He said, "In simple words, development of storage systems is necessary in order to ensure 24×7 power supply using RE sources like solar and wind. We are committed for the growth and development of the storage systems such as Lithium-ion batteries, pumped Hydro and Hydrogen. We shall be technology neutral in this and allow the market to decide the appropriate systems in various performances depending on markets."

However, as per industry body Solar Power Developers Association (SPDA), as the year passed, the sector went through a real tough time due to various policy uncertainties both at central and state levels which laid heavy financial burden on the power generators.

The SPDA listed issues impacting the segment which includes uncertainty over GST rates for SPGS (solar power generating systems), forecasting & scheduling mechanism, continued safeguard duty on imported solar cell/ modules, provisional anti-dumping duty on import of material for module mounting structures, grid curtailment etc.

India’s Thermal and Renewable Capacity Additions every fiscal year, in MegaWatts. 
Source: Central Electricity Authority, MNRE, IEEFA Estimates. 

*This image is copyright of its original author

SPDA Director General Shekhar Dutt said, "The major hit came from Andhra Pradesh which initiated the renegotiation of closed PPAs (power purchase agreements) thereby raising question over sanctity of contracts and shaking the confidence of domestic as well as foreign investors in the sector."
He further said, "This (Andhra issue) was coupled with ill health of state DISCOMs which impacted the timely payments against power purchases. Some states topping the chart include Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. This led to difficulty in raising finance specially from scheduled public and private banks who remained reluctant to invest in infrastructure projects."

According to portal PRAAPTI (Payment Ratification And Analysis in Power procurement for bringing Transparency in Invoicing of generators), the overdue outstanding of the discoms toward non-conventional or renewable energy generators is Rs 5,590 crore in October this year.
The overdue amount of discoms toward generators is even higher at around Rs 65,000 crore in case of conventional power generators like thermal and hydro in October this year.

The overdue outstanding of discoms are those dues which are not cleared even after 60 days of grace period offered by generators. Power producers give 60 days to discoms for paying bills for supply of electricity. After that, outstanding dues become overdue and generators charge penal interest on that in most cases.
In order to give relief to power generation companies (gencos), the Centre enforced a payment security mechanism from August 1. Under this mechanism, discoms are required to open letters of credit for getting power supply.

The government has also taken other steps like forming Dispute Resolution Committee to resolve contractual disputes in time bound manner and reduce number of litigations.

It has also made amendments in Standard Bidding Guidelines to broaden the definition of Force Majeure and increase of ceiling tariff has also supported the smooth deployment of solar projects

It has also launched the SARAL platform to asses and rank the readiness of states for rooftop segment helping investors to identify investment opportunities and states which need to be brought at par with others.

The industry is hopeful that in coming years, the GST rate would be brought down to 5 per cent, ceiling tariff increased and most importantly the E-reverse auction done away with and closed bidding process brought in again. Also, lenders will be encouraged to finance renewable energy projects.

In this thread post data about the honey badger.

They are powerful and small creatures