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Eight Namibian cheetahs arrived in India on September 17, decades after their local extinction

Eight Namibian cheetahs arrived in India Saturday, decades after their local extinction, in an ambitious project to reintroduce the spotted big cats that has divided experts on its prospects.

Officials say the project is the world’s first intercontinental relocation of cheetahs, the planet’s fastest land animal.

The five females and three males were moved from a game park in Namibia aboard a chartered Boeing 747 dubbed “Cat plane” for an 11-hour flight.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi presided over the release at Kuno National Park, a wildlife sanctuary 320 kilometres (200 miles) south of New Delhi selected for its abundant prey and grasslands.

“Today the cheetah has returned to the soil of India,” Modi said in a video address after their arrival, which coincided with the leader’s 72nd birthday.

“The nature loving consciousness of India has also awakened with full force,” he added. “We must not allow our efforts to fail.”

Each of the animals, aged between two and five and a half, have been fitted with a satellite collar to monitor their movements. 

They will initially be kept in a quarantine enclosure for about a month before being released in the open forest areas of the park.

Critics have warned the creatures may struggle to adapt to the Indian habitat.

A significant number of leopards are present in the park, and conservation scientist Ravi Chellam said that cubs could fall prey to feral dogs and other carnivores.

Under the government’s current action plan, “the prospects for a viable, wild and free-ranging population of cheetahs getting established in India is bleak,” he told AFP.

“The habitats should have been prepared first before bringing the cats from Namibia,” he added. “It is like us moving to a new city with only a sub-optimal place to stay — Not a nice situation at all.”

But organisers are unfazed.

“Cheetahs are very adaptable and (I’m) assuming that they will adapt well into this environment,” said Dr Laurie Marker, founder of the Namibia-based charity Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), which has been central to the project logistics.

“I don’t have a lot of worries,” she told AFP.

– Habitat loss and hunting –

India was once home to the Asiatic cheetah but it was declared extinct there by 1952. 

The critically endangered subspecies, which once roamed across the Middle East, Central Asia and India, are now only found, in very small numbers, in Iran.

Efforts to reintroduce the animals to India gathered pace in 2020 when the Supreme Court ruled that African cheetahs, a different subspecies, could be settled in India at a “carefully chosen location” on an experimental basis.

They are a donation from the government of Namibia, one of a tiny handful of countries in Africa where the magnificent creature survives in the wild.

Negotiations are ongoing for similar translocation from South Africa, with vets suggesting 12 cats could be moved. 

Cheetahs became extinct in India primarily because of habitat loss and hunting for their distinctive spotted coats. 

An Indian prince, the Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo, is widely believed to have killed the last three recorded cheetahs in India in the late 1940s.

One of the oldest of the big cat species, with ancestors dating back about 8.5 million years, cheetahs once roamed widely throughout Asia and Africa in great numbers, said CCF.

But today only around 7,000 remain, primarily in the African savannas.

The cheetah is listed globally as “vulnerable” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

In North Africa and Asia it is “critically endangered”.

Their survival is threatened primarily by dwindling natural habitat and loss of prey due to human hunting, the development of land for other purposes and climate change.

Japan's weather agency has warned of a 'very dangerous' typhoon heading towards the country's southern Kyushu island

Japan’s weather agency warned Saturday of “unprecedented” risks from a “very dangerous” typhoon heading towards the southern Kyushu island, urging residents to take shelter ahead of the storm.

Typhoon Nanmadol was producing gusts of up to 270 kilometres (167 miles) an hour and classed as a “violent” storm, the agency’s top level, on Saturday.

By late afternoon it was approaching the remote Minami Daito island, 400 kilometres east of Okinawa island.

The storm is expected to approach or make landfall on Sunday in Kyushu’s southern Kagoshima prefecture, then move north the following day before heading towards Japan’s main island.

“There are risks of unprecedented storms, high waves, storm surges, and record rainfall,” Ryuta Kurora, the head of the Japan Meteorological Agency’s forecast unit, told reporters. 

“Maximum caution is required,” he said, urging residents to evacuate early.

“It’s a very dangerous typhoon.”  

Kurora said the weather agency was likely to issue its highest alert later Saturday for the Kagoshima region.

Called “special warnings”, these are issued only when the JMA forecasts conditions seen once in a few decades. 

It would be the first typhoon-linked special warning issued outside of the Okinawa region since the current system began in 2013.

“The wind will be so fierce that some houses might collapse,” Kurora told reporters, also warning of flooding and landslides.

An evacuation “instruction” — level four on a five-level scale — is already in place for 330,000 people in Kagoshima, and authorities urged people to move to shelters or alternative accommodation before a top-level call was issued.

Evacuation warnings in Japan are not mandatory, and during past extreme weather events authorities have struggled to convince residents to take shelter quickly enough.

Japan is currently in typhoon season and faces around 20 such storms a year, routinely seeing heavy rains that cause landslides or flash floods.

In 2019, Typhoon Hagibis smashed into Japan as it hosted the Rugby World Cup, claiming the lives of more than 100 people. 

A year earlier, Typhoon Jebi shut down Kansai Airport in Osaka, killing 14 people.

And in 2018, floods and landslides killed more than 200 people in western Japan during the country’s annual rainy season.

Ahead of Typhoon Nanmadol’s arrival, flight cancellations began to affect regional airports including those in Kagoshima, Miyazaki and Kumamoto, according to the websites of Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways. 

Scientists say climate change is increasing the severity of storms and causing extreme weather such as heat waves, droughts and flash floods to become more frequent and intense. 

Cyclists pass a sign warning people of swooping magpies

Riders are bracing for an unusual threat at the world cycling championships in Australia this week — swooping magpies.

Wollongong, a coastal city 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Sydney that is hosting the eight-day event from Sunday, is home to flocks of the notoriously territorial black-and-white birds.

September is peak swooping season as magpies seek to protect their young in the nest, which can include dive-bombing people on bikes they perceive as a threat.

“Magpies can be quite territorial and there’s going to be a lot going on in their particular areas,” Paul Partland from the Illawarra Animal Hospital told local radio station Wave FM.

“Swooping birds tend to target people that are by themselves and also people that are moving in very fast ways.”

More than 1,000 cyclists from over 70 nations will be vying for 13 gold medals in races of wheel-to-wheel combat at the championships.

Although the riders will be wearing helmets, the threat from the sharp-beaked birds is a genuine concern.

“A fairly large bird came very close and it just kept following me,” Belgian cyclist Remco Evenepoel, who won the Vuelta a Espana in Spain last week, told cycling.com after a training session on Friday.

“It was terrifying. But that’s Australia, apparently. I hope it’s the only time it happens, but I am afraid of it,” added Evenepoel, among the favourite for Sunday’s men’s time trial.

Fellow time trial contender Stefan Kung revealed one of his Swiss teammates was also targeted.

“Yeah, one of our guys has been attacked already by a magpie,” he said.

Australia has a website for reporting magpie attacks, with 1,492 registered this year including 192 injuries, often minor.

But there have been fatalities, including a cyclist in Wollongong who died in 2019 when he crashed into a fence post while trying to avoid a swooping magpie.

Japan's weather agency on Saturday warned of a 'very dangerous' typhoon heading towards the country's southern Kyushu island

Japan’s weather agency on Saturday warned of a “very dangerous” typhoon heading towards the country’s southern Kyushu island, urging residents to evacuate before powerful wind hits the area.

Typhoon Nanmadol was carrying gusts up to 270 kilometres on Saturday near the remote Minami Daito island, 400 kilometres (250 miles) east of Okinawa island, the weather agency said.

The storm is expected to approach or make landfall on Sunday in the southern Kagoshima prefecture in Kyushu, then move north the following day before heading towards the main Japanese island.

“There are risks of unprecedented storms, high waves, storm surges, and record rainfall,” Ryuta Kurora, the head of the Japan Meteorological Agency’s forecast unit, told reporters. 

“Maximum caution is required,” he said, urging residents to evacuate early.

“It’s a very dangerous typhoon.”   

Kurora said the weather agency was likely to issue the highest alert for Kagoshima later in the evening.

“The wind will be so fierce that some houses might collapse,” he said, also warning of flooding and landslides.

Japan is currently in typhoon season and is hit by around 20 such storms a year, routinely seeing heavy rains that cause landslides or flash floods.

Scientists say climate change is increasing the severity of storms and causing extreme weather such as heat waves, droughts and flash floods to become more frequent and intense. 

This week's downpour and flash flooding follows weeks of drought over the summer

From parched rivers to a glacier collapse and this week’s deadly storms, Italy has suffered numerous climate events this year — but many politicians pay the subject little more than lip service.

Desperate to see some firm commitments ahead of September 25 elections, climate activists staged a sit-in at the Rome offices of frontrunner Giorgia Meloni earlier this month.

They demanded a public meeting with the far-right leader, but police carted them off the premises.

Concern over the spiralling cost of living has drowned out the debate over how to tackle the devastation caused by global warming.

The war in Ukraine has put the risk to energy supplies centre stage in a country heavily reliant on Russian gas. That has prompted a fresh drive for renewables — but also an increase in production in coal-fired plants.

Michele Giuli, a member of the Last Generation movement that stormed Meloni’s office, said deadly floods in central Italy this week had to refocus thinking.

Many have linked the extreme weather event to climate change, including Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

“People have died…,” he told AFP. “This must make us reflect.

“What do we want to do with our lives, while the Italian state does nothing to reduce emissions and avoid tens of thousands of similar deaths in the next few years?”

– Violence of climate events –

This summer’s drought, the worst in 70 years, drained the Po River, the peninsula’s largest water reservoir and a crucial resource for Italy’s agricultural sector.

And then the rains came, hitting land as hard as concrete. Five times the number of storms, hurricanes and floods lashed the country compared to 10 summers ago, according to the agricultural association Coldiretti.

In August, Italian scientists wrote an open letter to politicians, urging them to put the emergency first.

But an analysis published this week by Greenpeace found that less than 0.5 percent of political leaders’ statements on the main TV news programmes covered the climate crisis.

This summer in Italy “will be sadly remembered for the frequency and the violence of climate events… yet this dramatic emergency does not seem to affect many of the political leaders seeking to lead the country,” said Giuseppe Onufrio, executive director of Greenpeace Italy.

But it has been worse. Election experts at Luiss university in Rome note that some parties never used to mention the environment at all.

– Manifestos ‘weak on detail’ –

The widespread inclusion of green policies is actually “one of the novelties of this electoral campaign”, the CISE electoral studies unit said in a commentary last week.

This reflects the growing interest among the public, with 80 percent of respondents they surveyed agreeing that the fight against climate change should be a priority for Italy.

“At least climate change is addressed, or at least mentioned, in all of (the manifestos), though many are weak on detail,” said Piera Patrizio, senior researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London.

Italy had vowed to close its coal-fired plants by 2025, a goal it intends to keep despite the short-term measures to tackle the shortage of gas this winer.

Meloni’s right-wing alliance pledges to invest in renewable energies and waste-to-energy plants, as well as domestic production of natural gas, and the installation of regasification plants.

The outgoing government plans to install two such plants off Tuscany and Emilia Romagna, despite local protests.

Enrico Letta’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD), which presents the main challenge to Meloni, backs the plants as a temporary fix.

Meanwhile the anti-immigrant League party and right-wing Forza Italia — part of Meloni’s coalition — are pushing for nuclear energy though Italians rejected it in two referenda in 1987 and 2011.

The PD rejects nuclear power as too slow and expensive a solution and wants instead to sharply increase the share of renewables produced in Italy.

“There’s next to nothing (in the policies) on equity… on how some households, some parts of the country are going to be more affected than other,” Patrizio said.

The EU’s post-pandemic recovery fund, from which Italy expects to benefit almost 200 billion euros, is heavily tilted towards projects that ease the so-called “ecological transition”.

But Patrizio added: “Italy doesn’t have a net zero strategy right now… it doesn’t even know where to begin.”

Marzio Galeotti, environmental science and policy professor at Milan University, said it was “difficult to convince” the public that “environmental sustainability and emissions reduction can be combined with economic growth”.

But, he noted sadly, this is true of many countries: “We are seeing a kind of temporary amnesia that is not unique to Italy.”

When the night falls and the tide goes out, the smell around Guayaquil's estuary can be nauseating

On the banks of the dark and murky waters of the Guayaquil estuary, volunteers trudge through mud as they slide wooden platforms.

Onboard are crucial seedlings that could save the 70-kilometer (44 mile)-long polluted artery outside Ecuador’s main port city.

Environmental engineer Angela Cevallos is leading efforts to save the estuary with these “floating islands,” which are embedded with red mangrove seedlings.

The plant is known for its long roots which can absorb pollutants while helping establish an aquatic ecosystem, allowing other plants and animals to thrive.

“These islands are the transportation mode and the propagules (seedlings) do the work,” said Cevallos, who leads the project run by Holy Spirit University, her alma mater.

For decades, tons of rubbish, excrement and heavy metals have been dumped into the water around Guayaquil — home to 2.8 million people.

But despite several previous conservation efforts and millions of dollars of investment, the estuary continues to be threatened by pollution.

“Guayaquil has grown at the feet of this estuary and we cannot let it die,” said architect Patricio Rosero, who designed the biodegradable wooden platforms.

Volunteers carry the two-meter long platforms on their backs one by one to the water’s edge.

Ten platforms are tied together using rope made from banana skins.

Wearing a long-sleeve shirt and white boots, Cevallos, 23, wades into the green mud to slowly push the platforms into place.

Each “island” is stuffed with 23 red mangrove seedlings, which within four months should form thin trunks.

“The mangrove is a noble habitat, it can be regenerated and absorb pollutants,” said Cevallos.

“I will come back to test the water to see if there is less pollution.”

– 1,000 times the authorized contamination –

Half a century ago, fishermen would catch snook and corvina in the estuary, while children would frolic in its natural pools.

“My father took my three siblings and myself to Puerto Liza and there he taught us to swim. The water was crystal clear and fresh,” reminisced 75-year-old Lucenia Haro, a retired school teacher.

But then large scale building began, sparked by politicians seeking to win new voters.

Entire neighborhoods were built at breakneck speed, but without a connected sewage system.

Even today, the pipes that transport sewage empty directly into the estuary, where 300,000 people live along the coast, many in extreme poverty.

Between May 2019 and July 2022, almost 35,000 tons of rubbish were collected from the estuary, according to figures from the Guayaquil mayoral office.

The largest source of pollution is sewage.

“Secret connections have been closed and redirected to the sewage system,” said Maria Fernanda Rumbea, head of the local environment body.

According to Cevallos’s analysis, in the area where the floating islands have been placed, there is 1,000 times the authorized amount of coliform bacteria, which lives in feces and can contaminate water.

– Conservation efforts –

It is not the first time such platforms have been sent into the estuary.

In 2014, the environment ministry installed some metal platforms but they failed due to a lack of maintenance.

Earlier this year, the Higher Polytechnic School of the Coast launched an initiative to reforest the estuary with marine algae.

“We want to know whether the algae can improve the mangroves’ germination rate,” said Edwin Jimenez, a researcher at the university.

The Guayaquil municipality is implementing its own conservation project as well, starting with the construction of its sewage treatment plant, according to Rumbea.

When the night falls and the tide goes out, the smell is nauseating.

And yet the estuary and its vegetation continue to resist the contamination. It remains the only drainage system for rain water, thus preventing potentially catastrophic flooding during the country’s rainy season.

“If it wasn’t for the estuary and its smelly trees, dozens of homes and buildings would have disappeared some time ago,” said Jimenez.

The cheetah is the fastest land animal on Earth

Eight Namibian cheetahs were on Friday airlifted to India, part of an ambitious project to reintroduce the big cats after they were driven to extinction there decades ago, officials and vets said.

The wild cheetahs were moved by road from a game park north of the Namibian capital Windhoek to board a chartered Boeing 747 dubbed “Cat plane” for an 11-hour flight.

They will be personally welcomed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, his 72nd birthday.

He will swing open the gates of Kuno National Park, a new sanctuary created for the cats, 320 kilometres (200 miles) south of Delhi.

The 750-square-kilometre (290-square-mile) protected park was selected as a home because of its abundant prey and grasslands.

The project is the world’s first inter-continental translocation of cheetahs, the world’s fastest land animal, according to the Indian high commissioner to Namibia, Prashant Agrawal.

“This is historic, global first. Game-changing,” he told AFP. “We are all the more excited because it is happening in the 75th year of Indian independence”.

Critics have warned that the Namibian cheetahs may struggle to adapt to the Indian habitat and may clash with the significant number of leopards already present.

But organisers are unfazed.

“Cheetahs are very adaptable and (I’m) assuming that they will adapt well into this environment. So I don’t have a lot of worries,” said Dr Laurie Marker, founder of the Namibia-based charity Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), which has been central to the project logistics.

The project has been in the making for more than a decade. Initial discussion started in the 1990s, she told AFP.

India was once home to the Asiatic cheetah but it was declared extinct there by 1952. The critically endangered subspecies, which once roamed across the Middle East, Central Asia and India, are now only found, in very small numbers, in Iran.

New Delhi has since 2020 been working to reintroduce the animals after the Supreme Court announced that African cheetahs, a different subspecies, could be settled in a “carefully chosen location” on an experimental basis.

The five females and three males, aged between two and five and a half, will each be fitted with a satellite collar. 

They are a donation from the government of Namibia, one of a tiny handful of countries in Africa where the magnificent creature survives in the wild.

Negotiations are ongoing for similar translocation from South Africa, a government official told AFP on Friday, with vets suggesting 12 cats could be moved. 

Cheetahs became extinct in India primarily because of habitat loss and hunting for their distinctive spotted coats. 

An Indian prince, the Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo, is widely believed to have killed the last three recorded cheetahs in India in the late 1940s.

One of the oldest of the big cat species, with ancestors dating back about 8.5 million years, cheetahs once roamed widely throughout Asia and Africa in great numbers, said CCF.

But today only around 7,000 remain, primarily in the African savannas.

The cheetah is listed globally as “Vulnerable” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

In North Africa and Asia it is “Critically Endangered”.

Their survival is threatened primarily by dwindling natural habitat and loss of prey due to human hunting, the development of land for other purposes and climate change.

More than 400 millimetres (16 inches) of rain fell over a few hours on Thursday evening

At least 10 people died and four were missing after an extraordinary thunderstorm sparked major flooding in central Italy, officials said Friday, pushing the issue of climate change up the agenda the week before elections.

Prime Minister Mario Draghi confirmed the toll, while saying it could change, before heading to the town of Ostra near Ancona, one of the places worst hit. More than 400 millimetres (16 inches) of rain fell there over a few hours on Thursday evening.

“It was scary because it happened so fast,” said Laura Marinelli, 33, who grabbed her 18-month-old daughter and ran to neighbours upstairs as her ground-floor home near Ostra began to flood.

“It sounded like a waterfall,” she added.

The waters kept rising and they climbed onto the roof to call for help, where they were rescued by emergency services.

“We’ve lost everything, all the photos, all the letters you can’t replace,” she told AFP, plastic pink toys floating in the submerged garden nearby.

News reports suggested there were two children among the missing, one swept by the waters out of the arms of their mother.

– Emergency funds –

Across the area around Ancona, the port capital of the central eastern Marche region, streets were turned into rivers, cars swept into piles by the floodwaters, furniture washed out of homes and thick mud left everywhere.

The fire service said it had more than 300 people working on the floods, while several areas were without electricity or telephone connections, and schools were closed.

Draghi announced five million euros in emergency funds for the area and visited Ostra to offer his condolences in person.

“We will do everything possible… you can count on us,” said the premier, who is set to leave office following elections on September 25.

Speaking in Rome earlier, he put the toll at 10 dead and four missing, while saying this number was liable to change.

Draghi also made an explicit link between the flooding and global warming, saying: “We see it concretely in what happened today how the fight against climate change is fundamental.”

Condolences for those affected poured in from across the political spectrum.

Giorgia Meloni, whose far-right Brothers of Italy party is leading opinion polls, offered her “full solidarity” with those affected.

– No warning –

Italy has been hit by severe drought, followed by violent end-of-summer storms, and many have drawn the link with climate change — a subject which took a back seat during the election campaign.

“How can you think that the fight against climate change is not the first priority?” said Enrico Letta, head of the centre-left Democratic Party. 

He said he was “stunned and speechless” at news of the floods and announced he was suspending campaigning in the Marche region.

Francesco Rocca, president of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said its teams were on their way.

“Very concerned by the growth of extreme weather events,” he said on Twitter.

This summer’s drought, the worst in 70 years, drained the Po River, Italy’s largest water reservoir.

The baking heat has in recent weeks been followed by storms, the water flooding land rendered hard as concrete.

In July, 11 people were killed when a section of Italy’s biggest Alpine glacier gave way, a disaster that officials blamed on climate change.

The EU’s economy commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, a former Italian premier, said he shed tears for the victims of the floods in Marche.

“Italy and Europe must take climate change seriously,” he tweeted.

Local officials said there was no warning of the huge storm, with only a normal weather warning issued.

The Italian Air Force, which deals with weather, said there had been an “exceptional” event, with more than 400 mm of rain falling between mid-afternoon and 11:00 pm.

More than half of this fell within four hours, spokesman Guido Guidi told AFP, adding: “It was not a foreseeable event.”

More than 400 millimetres (16 inches) of rain fell over a few hours on Thursday evening

At least 10 people died and four were missing after heavy rain sparked major flooding in central Italy, pushing the issue of climate change up the agenda the week before elections.

Prime Minister Mario Draghi confirmed the toll before heading to the town of Ostra near Ancona, one of the places worst hit when more than 400 millimetres (16 inches) of rain fell over a few hours on Thursday evening.

“It was scary because it happened so fast. It sounded like a waterfall,” said Laura Marinelli, 33, who grabbed her 18-month-old daughter and ran to neighbours upstairs as her ground-floor home near Ostra began to flood.

The waters kept rising and they climbed onto the roof to call for help.

“We’ve lost everything, all the photos, all the letters you can’t replace,” she told AFP, plastic pink toys floating in the submerged garden nearby.

The AGI news agency earlier reported that a child was among the missing, after being washed away from their mother.

Across the area around Ancona, the port capital of the central eastern Marche region, streets were turned into rivers, cars swept into piles by the floodwaters, furniture washed out of homes and thick mud left everywhere.

The fire service said it had 300 people working on the floods, while several areas were without electricity or telephone connections, and schools were closed.

At a pre-planned press conference in Rome, Draghi announced five million euros in emergency funds for the area, and offered his “deep condolences” for the victims.

“At the moment we are counting 10 dead and four disappeared, but unfortunately the situation is evolving,” he said.

Draghi made an explicit link between the flooding and global warming, saying: “We see it concretely in what happened today how the fight against climate change is fundamental.”

– Extreme climate events –

The tragedy occurs just days before September 25 general elections, and condolences for those affected poured in from across the political spectrum.

Frontrunner Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party who polls show could be the next prime minister, offered “full solidarity” with those affected.

Italy has been hit by severe drought this year, followed by violent end-of-summer storms, and many have drawn the link with climate change — a subject which had taken a back seat during the election campaign.

“How can you think that the fight against climate change is not the first priority?” said Enrico Letta, head of the centre-left Democratic Party. 

He said he was “stunned and speechless” at the news and announced he was suspending campaigning in Marche.

Francesco Rocca, president of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said its teams were heading to help.

“Very concerned by the growth of extreme weather events,” he said on Twitter.

This summer’s drought, the worst in 70 years, drained the Po River, Italy’s largest water reservoir.

The baking heat has in recent weeks been followed by storms, the water flooding land rendered hard as concrete.

In July, 11 people were killed when a section of Italy’s biggest Alpine glacier gave way, in a disaster officials blamed on climate change.

The EU’s economy commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, a former Italian premier, said he shed tears for the victims of the floods in Marche.

“Italy and Europe must take climate change seriously,” he tweeted.

– ‘Exceptional’ weather event –

Maurizio Greci, mayor of the town of Sassoferrato near Ancona, said that aside from a general weather warning, there was nothing to suggest “a disaster of this magnitude”.

“This is something that has never happened in living memory in this area,” he told Radio Capital, while adding that most of the damage in his town was to property.

The Italian Air Force, which deals with weather, said there had been an “exceptional” weather event, with more than 400 mm of rain falling between mid-afternoon and 11:00 pm.

More than half of this fell within four hours, spokesman Guido Guidi told AFP, adding: “It was not a forseeable event.”

ljm-ar/raz

The eruption of the volcano in La Palma a year ago — spewing rivers of molten rock and ash plumes into the air — has sparked tourism to the Spanish island

When the volcano erupted in La Palma last year, Teodoro Gonzalez Perez rushed to the Spanish island to see the lava flows with his own eyes — now he’s back for another look.

This time, he’s here to see the volcano closer up now it has quieted down.

“It’s like walking on the surface of a new planet,” said the 54-year-old nurse from the nearby island of Tenerife while hiking through a lush pine forest carpeted with black ash to reach the site. 

“Visiting a volcano which recently erupted is an opportunity that only arises once in a lifetime,” he told AFP. 

Since the volcano erupted on September 19, 2021, spewing rivers of molten rock and ash plumes into the air, interest in visiting La Palma is booming.

The island is normally one of the less visited ones of Spain’s tourism-dependent Canary Islands off Africa’s northwestern coast.

In August, the average hotel occupancy on the island hit 90.9 percent, well above expectations, with visitors from the rest of Spain accounting for the bulk of the overnight stays, according to local hotel lobby group ASHOTEL.

“Before the eruption, we struggled to make the island known,” ASHOTEL’s vice president Carlos Garcia Sicilia told AFP.

“On the one hand, the volcano has been a misfortune, a huge blow to the island’s economy. On the other, I think half the planet has now heard of La Palma.”

While the images beamed around the world during the 85-day eruption focused on the destruction caused by the volcano, news reports also highlighted the tiny island’s charms — which has helped whet the appetite for travel to La Palma.

Nicknamed “La Isla Bonita” or “The Beautiful Island”, La Palma is a UNESCO-recognised biosphere reserve replete with verdant forests, rocky peaks and desert. 

– ‘As close as possible’ –

Since the eruption, the number of cruise ships stopping at the island has increased, as has the number of direct flights from mainland Spain and elsewhere in Europe.

Irish low-cost airline Ryanair opened its first base in La Palma in March and offers several direct flights per week to three Spanish cities as well as Milan.

Business is also booming for tour companies offering day trips by ferry from Tenerife, the largest and most visited island of the Canaries.

Excursiones Jesus, based in Tenerife, runs its 135-euro ($135) 11-hour tour of La Palma three days a week now, up from just one before the eruption.

“People want to get as close as possible to where the eruption happened,” company founder Jesus Molina told AFP.

The ash and rivers of lava spewing from the volcano swallowed up more than 1,000 homes, cut off highways and suffocated lush banana plantations. 

On a recent weekday, small groups of tourists could often be seen snapping pictures of excavators removing giant chunks of solidified lava from the centre of La Laguna, a town where the molten rock swallowed up a gas station and a supermarket.

Among those flocking to the island are regular visitors, one of whom is Rita Ley, a retired German woman who said she wanted to see what it looked like after the eruption.

“It is terrible to see that everything is destroyed, but it’s interesting to see how the earth is alive,” said the 59-year-old.

– Travel vouchers –

The government now sees tourism as key to the recovery of the island’s economy.

It has spent heavily to promote travel to La Palma and has given away 20,000 travel vouchers worth 250 euros to residents of Spain that can be used in hotels and restaurants on the island.

To help draw more tourists, the authorities have inaugurated a new zip-line and a visitors’ centre at the Roque de los Muchachos astronomical observatory.

It is also helping restore the tourism infrastructure.

Around 3,000 of La Palma’s 8,000 tourist beds were either destroyed in the eruption, or are located in areas that remain off limits due to dangerous levels of volcanic gases, mainly in Puerto Naos on the southwestern coast.

Hawaii and Iceland saw a similar increase in tourists after they experienced volcanic eruptions but visitor interest eventually waned and some tourism operators in La Palma expect the same to happen.

Jonas Perez, founder of Isla Bonita Tours, predicted the volcanic eruption “won’t be as fresh in people’s memory” in a few years.

“La Palma will no longer be as popular,” he said.