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One of the most renowned British Officers in the history of the Brigade of Gurkhas Lieutenant Colonel J P Cross OBE has reached 100 years of lifetime and the extraordinary occasion was marked with a fervent celebration at the British Gurkhas Nepal camp in Pokhara. 

Lieutenant Colonel John Philip Cross OBE, popularly known as JP Cross, served together with the Gurkhas in the British Army for nearly 40 years, when he earned legendary respect because of his experience, leadership and devotion to his units. 

Following retirement from a very rich service accounting numerous deployments, he has been living in Nepal for the last 49 years, the latter years as an official Nepali citizen. Now fond of being called a ‘Nepali born in Britain’, the retired Officer recalls his first arrival in Nepal with the British Army 80 years ago at the age of 21. 

He has authored 19 books on his lifelong military service and knowledge and in his remarks and recollections, has always held the Gurkhas in high esteem. His passion for Nepal, its people and the Gurkhas has cemented his name in Nepal and the Gurkha community, while his knowledge expressed in his writing has gained good recognition in the wider military world.

Addressing the event attended by Mrs Julia Fenn, wife of the British Ambassador to Nepal, Gurkha veterans and serving officers and staff, Colonel Dan Rex MVO, Commander British Gurkhas Nepal urged all to reflect how the milestone celebration resonated beyond the camp in Pokhara to all of the Brigade of Gurkhas and British Army. “It is also a moment being closely watched and related by many Nepalis who are proud of their association with JP Saheb,” he said. 

In addition to his distinguished career as an officer and author, Lt Col (Retd) J P Cross OBE is recognised as an expert in jungle warfare and counter-insurgency, with experience as a police officer, defence attaché, and Gurkha recruitment officer. He is also a highly skilled linguist, fluent in Nepali and its dialects. His military service spans Burma, Indo-China, Malaya, Borneo, Pakistan, India, Hong Kong, and Nepal, among other regions. He now lives a settled life in Pokhara, Nepal—the home of Gurkha recruitment—with his godson and family. Back when 93 years, with his sharp sense of humour, he had quipped: "Call me old when I am 100." Maybe it’s time to dig more humour out of J P Saheb

The weather today will be partly to generally cloudy across the country. 

There is a possibility of light to moderate rain with thunder and lightning at many places in the hilly regions of the country including Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini Provinces.

According to the Weather Forecasting Division, there is also a possibility of heavy rain at one or two places in the hilly regions of Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini Provinces. There is a possibility of light rain and snowfall at a few places in the high-hilly and mountainous regions of the country.

Later tonight, the weather will continue to remain partly to generally cloudy across the country. There is a possibility of light to moderate rain with thunder and lightning at many places in Koshi, Madhesh, Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini Provinces and at some places in the rest of the country. 

There is a possibility of heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places in Koshi, Madhesh and Bagmati Provinces and heavy rainfall at one or two places in Gandaki, Lumbini and Sudurpaschim Provinces. Light to moderate rainfall and snowfall is likely at a few places in the high-hilly and mountainous regions of the country.

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.”