India’s initial snow leopard study shows that there are only 718 of them remaining

India’s first snow leopard survey estimates that there are 718 big cats living in six mountainous regions of the country.

They make up about 10 to 15 percent of the world’s population, and conservationists believe they number between 3,000 and 5,400 people.

snow leopard (panthera uncia) inhabit vast areas of remote mountainous regions, making them one of the most difficult predators to study.

The study, led by Wildlife Trust of India, was conducted from 2019 to 2023 and involved setting up 1,971 camera traps covering 120,000 square kilometers of habitat.

This represents over 70 per cent of the snow leopard’s potential habitat across the trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Approximately 34 percent of this area is under legal protection.

While 241 cats were photographed, evidence of leopard feces, fur, and body marks was found in the survey area, which covers approximately 100,000 square kilometers.

Snow leopards live in 12 countries in Asia, but primarily in the rugged Himalayas of China and India. The species was listed as endangered in 1972 and reclassified as endangered in 2017, but is still considered to be in decline.

“Snow leopards are beautiful, mysterious, ghostly animals, but they’re so much more than that,” says biologist George Schaller, who first photographed a snow leopard in Pakistan in 1971. “Snow leopards tend to symbolize the region and people of the time.” We begin to focus on the region as a whole, not just the snow leopard. Protecting it therefore protects the area for the benefit of all wildlife and local communities. ”

India’s goal is to use this baseline for long-term population surveys to improve monitoring, said Bhupender Yadav, India’s Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Forests and Climate Change. This is what the agency did in his 1970s with Project Tiger, creating conservation measures to increase the tiger population.

“These periodic assessments provide valuable insights to identify challenges, address threats, and develop effective conservation strategies,” says Yadav.

But some local figures fear the announcement could backfire. “This is one of the rarest animals, and this number may change the way we look at it,” said wildlife photographer Morap Namgair. snow leopard tour In Ladakh. “People might think 718 is an exaggeration, so it might change the psychology of conservation.”

Namgeir believes local people must take the lead in conservation efforts. “As locals, we share the mountain, so we have a responsibility to keep its numbers at the same level, if not increase,” he says. “They are the world’s most difficult animals to study, and we may never know how many there are. But we are committed to our efforts because protecting them protects us all.” Have to.”