Dear Visitors,

‘Because a picture speaks a thousand words’. This has been the driving maxim of this picture blog. Then why today did I have to resort to prose…
Well! Something awful and unanticipated happened.. Our SQL database on our hosting server disappeared. The hosting company can give us a backup but we need to prove it was their fault (how can one prove an event that happened hours ago on the internet) or cough up considerable dough (which we cant afford). Anyways I have tried my best to restore the database from an old backup. My under-confidence with the previous hosting company has proved fruitful, ironically we never ever lost any file with them.

Anyways I have restored what I could but a big chunk of the posts are lost.

Over the next weeks I will try and re-post them hopefully with as much flair as the previos ones commanded.

However, we have also lost a number of viewer comments, which is much painful. However I am also sure that our readers will add more and more thoughtful messages to pep up this blog.

I apologize to all those whose posts and comments got wiped off.

Anjum

Wild captive birds and commercial broilers sold together.

Repost

Not really, just a surgery performed on a Shapu. Shapu is a specie of wild sheep from Ladakh. The one in picture was kept at the Deer Pak at Pahalgam. It had developed an abnormal growth on its side (tumor??) which was heavily infested with maggots. A Ketamine Xylazine combination anesthetic was used and the maggots and dead tissue removed.

Surgeon and images: Dr Shabir Ahmad Mir