Pugmarks Holidays to offer three homestay facilities in Tadoba National Park, Nagpur by October this year

Mumbai-based Pugmarks Holidays, involved in Adventure and Wildlife Tourism, is looking at promoting homestays near national parks in India. As part of its pilot project, the company will start offering three homestays (two rooms each) in Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (National Park) near Nagpur in Maharashtra by October this year. The company will also start training the local community on skills to specialise in naturalist courses to involve them directly in the tourism industry. The company is also keen to expand its homestay facilities in other national parks of the country in future.

Talking about the aim behind the homestay project, Anirudh Chaoji, Director, Pugmarks Holidays said, “The concept of homestays at National Parks will not only provide first hand experience to adventure lovers but also help the local community to earn revenue. By training them on certain things like communication skills and language, they can be more fruitful as compared to trained naturalists.”

Adding on the potential of homestays and Ecotourism in India, Chaoji said, “Awareness about Ecotourism is required on a high scale among travellers in India. Travelling to an eco-friendly destination and staying at a five-star air conditioned accommodation is not the way to experience Green Tourism. Travellers need to understand the difference and start opting for real Ecotourism experience. The concept of homestays is in the budding stage in India, especially in states like Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. As per the saying, ‘In Rome, do as Romans do’; travellers should stay within the community to understand the local culture.”

Apple quietly adds anti-malware in Snow Leopard update

In the latest update to Snow Leopard, Apple included software to protect Mac computers from a Trojan horse that has been distributed by attackers disguised as iPhoto, but which opens a back door on the machine, security firm Sophos said on Friday.

When Apple released OS X 10.6.4 on Tuesday, the company said it addressed certain compatibility issues with VPN connections and other things, but failed to mention anything about adding an anti-malware update.

But buried in the code is an update to the XProtect.plist file, which contains signatures of malware written to target the Mac. The signatures now detect malware dubbed "HellRTS," Graham Clulely of Sophos wrote in a blog post.

HellRTS, which Sophos detects as "OSX/Pinheard-B," is a Trojan that has been around several months. It lets attackers use infected computers to send spam, take screenshots, access files, and pretty much take control of the computer, Sophos said.

"Unfortunately, many Mac users seem oblivious to security threats which can run on their computers. And that isn't helped when Apple issues an anti-malware security update like this by stealth, rather than informing the public what it has done," Clulely writes. "You have to wonder whether their keeping quiet about an anti-malware security update like this was for marketing reasons. "Shh! Don't tell folks that we have to protect against malware on Mac OS X!"