Prediction of weekend snow and the Chief Minister’s directions to not be harsh with drunk revelers on New Year failed to woo tourists to Shimla which recorded a 50-60 per cent occupancy – “the lowest in the last 40 years”.

Last year, Shimla recorded over 80 per cent occupancy on New Year. The hotel and allied industries were pinning hopes on a ‘white New Year’ but chances of snowfall are very bleak.

While the Mall Road and The Ridge in the heart of the city are abuzz with tourists as winter carnival turned the place into a fair with lights and cultural bonanza, footfall has not converted in room occupancy in hotels, said Shimla Hotel and Tourism Stakeholders Association president MK Seth.

The occupancy is about 50-60 per cent which is the lowest in the last 40 years and even during the Covid-19 pandemic, the New Year tourist rush was more than this, he told PTI.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has directed the police to follow ‘Atithi Devo Bhava‘, and facilitate tourists and make adequate arrangements in all districts for the smooth flow of traffic.

Besides allowing food joints and pan shops to remain open 24×7, he said drunk tourists will not be arrested, but will be taken to their hotels by the cops to ensure their New Year experience is not spoiled.

The unregistered tourism units are eating into the sales of registered hotels, home stays and other such accommodations, said Mr Seth, adding that the tourists coming by train and luxury buses are “captured” by touts who take them to unregistered accommodations.

“We are surprised to see such a drop in tourist inflow when all things are favourable. This is the lowest occupancy in my living memory” said vice president of the association Prince Kukreja, hoping that the occupancy would pick up by late evening.

A large number of tourists prefer isolated accommodations in the suburbs with forest cover and peace, and those planning private parties are also going beyond the city, said local hotelier Shishu, adding that even the hotels in the main town, normally packed during this time, are not packed to capacity.

About 7,600 tourists vehicles from other states have come to Shimla via Shoghi barrier on the Shimla-Chandigarh Road from Saturday morning (8 am) to Sunday afternoon (12 pm), SP Shimla Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi told PTI today.

The tourism stakeholders added that adverse publicity on social media and some electronic channels regarding traffic jams diverted tourists to other destinations.

The local Met office predicted snowfall and rainfall at isolated places in high-and-mid hills on Saturday and Sunday as a fresh Western Disturbance lies over the Himalayan region. However, no snowfall was witnessed in the key tourist resorts.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

With the successful launch of XPoSAT  or the X-ray Polarimeter Satellite, at 9.10 am , India will become the second country after the US to have an ‘observatory’ to study black holes. The new mission comes on the heels of India’s successful moon mission Chandrayaan.
Using X-ray photons and their polarisation, XPoSAT will help study the radiation from near black holes and neutron stars. It carries two payloads namely POLIX (Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays) and XSPECT (X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing).
The satellite will measure polarisation of X-rays in the energy band 8-30keV emanating from about 50 potential cosmic sources through Thomson Scattering by POLIX payload.
It will carry out long term spectral and temporal studies of cosmic X-ray sources. It will also carry out polarisation and spectroscopic measurements of X-ray emissions from cosmic sources through POLIX and XSPECT payloads..
When stars run out of fuel and ‘die’, they collapse under their own gravity and leave behind black holes or neutron stars.
Black holes have the highest gravitational force in the universe and neutron stars have the highest densities.
Gathering more information on this, the mission will help unravel the mysteries of the ultra-extreme environments in space.
The XPoSat satellite cost around Rs 250 crore (approximately $30 million) while the NASA IXPE – which is on a similar mission since 2021 — required an outlay of $188 million.
The Indian satellite is expected to last more than five years compared to the two-year life span of the NASA IXPE,
The XPoSAT mission will see the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle or PSLV — undertake its 60th flight. Besides the 469-kg XPoSAT, the 260-tonne PSLV will lift off with 10 experiments.

After a bridge and a train engine, Bihar’s list of bizarre thefts continued with an entire pond being “stolen”. The pond vanished and had a hut built on it, leaving the locals baffled in Darbhanga district.

The surprise appearance of a hut did prompt them to inform the cops, but the land mafia – who are accused of filling the pond to take over the land – had fled by the time the police arrived.

Locals suggest the pond was publicly-owned and even maintained for fishing and other activities. But the rising prices of land in Darbhanga made the mafia set their eyes on the water body.

The locals had complained to the authorities when the pond-filling started and had led to zonal officials briefly stopping the work and making some seizures. But the mafia carried out the levelling work secretly in the dark – until the pond was entirely gone.

“People say the pond was filled with soil within 10-15 days. The work was done only at night. Officials had visited the spot earlier and even seized some items,” said Amit Kumar, Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO).

Bihar has hit the headlines for some of the most bizarre incidents of theft carried out – though not imaginable – by humans.

This includes an entire diesel engine being stolen in November, 2022 – part by part from a railway yard in Begusarai. The thieves had dug a tunnel to the yard and started stealing parts, according to the police. Slowly, they had taken away the entire engine that had come for repairs.

Earlier that year, an entire 60-foot bridge was stolen in Rohtas district. Eight persons including a government officer were arrested and 247 kg iron channels were recovered from the accused. The thieves used JCBs and gas cutters to dismantle it and the bridge disappeared in just three days.