CHINESE OFFICIALS INSPECT LANDSLIDE DAMAGE IN RASUWA Kathmandu, 20 June : A team of Chinese officials made an on-site inspection of different landslide sites on the Rasuwa section of the Pasang Lhamu highway, RSS reportsfrom Dhunche.. The team reached here at the invitation of the District Development Committee (DDC), Rasuwa to discuss the material assistance that the Chinese government has been providing to the different VDCs located near the Nepal-China border. Nepali Consular General in Lhasa, Hari Basyal,also accompanied the Chinese team comprising, among others, Administrator of the Kerung, Dola. The team inspected the landslide sites at Ramche VDC-9, Mulkharka and Phulwik, it is stated. It is stated that the visit and inspection of landslide areas by the Chinese officials has raised hopes among the people that transport route to the remote VDCs near the border with China would be opened. Disruption of surface transport due to the landslide had affected a population of 25,000 in these remote VDCs in the district. Nnnn LIGHTNING KILLS ONE, INJURES ANOTHER IN SIRAHA Kathmandu, 20 June: One person died after being hit by lightning at Pokharbhinda, Siraha district, on Tuesday night, RSS reports from Golbazzar.. The deceased has been identified as 45-year-old Ram Babu Rajdhobi of local Pokharbhinda VDC-5. He died soon after the thunderbolt struck him, police said. Another person was seriously injured in the lightning strike and he is undergoing treatment at home, said Shiva Kumar Saha. Nnnn PEACEFUL NEPAL TO FIGHT POACHING BY USING DRONES Kathmandu, 20 June: Conservationists in Nepal are to send drone aircraft into the skies in the battle to save the Himalayan nation's endangered tigers and rhinos from Poachers, AFP reports from.Kathmandu. WWF Nepal said it had successfully tested two unmanned "conservation drones" earlier this month in Chitwan National Park, in Nepal's southern plains, the home of a number of the world's rarest animals. The remote-controlled aircraft, being used for the first time in Nepal, would monitor the animals and poachers via cameras and GPS to capture images and video, the organisation said in a statement earlier this week. The aircraft, with a two-metre (6.5-foot) wing span and a range of 25 kilometres (15.5 miles), can stay in the air for 45 minutes, flying at an altitude of up to 200 metres. "WWF Nepal has been introducing new science and technology to aid ongoing conservation efforts in Nepal. The conservation drones are the latest addition," said Anil Manandhar, the organisation's representative in Kathmandu. "We believe that this technology will be instrumental in monitoring Nepal's flagship species and curbing illegal wildlife trade." Thousands of tigers and greater one-horned rhinos, also known as the Indian rhinoceros, once roamed Nepal and northern India but their numbers plunged over the last century due to poaching and human encroachment on their habitat. Rhinos are killed for their horns, which are prized for their reputed medicinal qualities in China and southeast Asia, while tiger skins, meat and bones are also in high demand. nnnn