How often do you see a critically endangered, elusive snow leopard, a flagship species for the high-altitude Himalayas, in nature? Rarely or never for some, believe wildlife experts.<\/p>\n
But Assistant Public Relations Officer Ajay Banyal spotted a roaming mother snow leopard with two cubs through the snow just close to Kaza, the headquarters of Spiti that is some 350 km from the state capital Shimla, yesterday evening.<\/p>\n
He captured the snow leopards, known as the ‘ghost of the mountains’ that live above the tree line on steep and rocky peaks, in his mobile camera close to the Langcha-Kaza road, just three km away from Kaza, in the Spiti Valley in Himachal Pradesh.<\/p>\n
“It was a lucky encounter with the elusive snow leopard,” Banyal told IANS over phone from Kaza where he is posted.<\/p>\n
“In the past two and a half years of my posting in Kaza, I was trying to spot the snow leopard across the Spiti Valley, a home to the snow leopard, during my assignments. It was a chance encounter last evening when I spotted a snow leopard family while I was travelling in a vehicle,” an excited and energetic Banyal said.<\/p>\n
He also captured a video clip to raise public awareness and support for snow leopard conservation.<\/p>\n
Recent studies by the state forest Department using camera traps have suggested a healthy increase in the population of snow leopards, especially in the Spiti Valley that supports its sufficient prey blue sheep.<\/p>\n
The Pin Valley in the Spiti Valley is a national park and is the habitat for rare animals and birds, including the snow leopard.<\/p>\n
The national park is some 40 km from the place where Banyal encountered the snow leopards.<\/p>\n
Elated over the snow leopards’ sighting, 1988-batch IFS officer Ajay Srivastava, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), told IANS on Thursday the Spiti landscape has been rated one of the country’s best.<\/p>\n
India has identified three large landscapes \u2013 Hemis-Spiti across Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh; Nanda Devi-Gangotri in Uttarakhand; and Khangchendzonga \u2013 Tawang across Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh where the Central government is committing to landscape restoration for snow leopard conservation.<\/p>\n
India has been party to the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection (GSLEP) Programme since 2013.<\/p>\n
Srivastava, who was earlier posted as PCCF (wildlife)-cum-chief wildlife warden, said as per studies conducted by the wildlife wing in collaboration with the Nature Conservation Foundation the Spiti landscape is home to some 70 snow leopards, a healthy population.<\/p>\n
Studies also report a bulk of snow leopard’s occurrence is reported outside protected areas, indicating a deep-rooted man-animal bondage.<\/p>\n
The snow leopard, a graceful golden-eyed animal with thick fur, padded paws and a long tail, is found in rocky regions at an altitude from 2,700 to 6,000 metres (8,900 ft to 20,000 ft).<\/p>\n
As a flagship species, Himachal Pradesh has adopted it as its state animal.<\/p>\n
The estimation was carried out by laying camera traps, say wildlife officials.<\/p>\n
The estimation reveals that the density of snow leopard ranges from 0.08 to 0.37 individuals per 100 sq km in the trans-Himalayan regions of Spiti, Pin Valley and upper Kinnaur with recording the highest densities, both of the predator and its prey, mainly the blue sheep (bharal) and the mountain ibex.<\/p>\n
The study covers the entire potential of the snow leopard habitat, covering an area of 26,112 sq km by utilising a stratified sampling design, Nature Conservation Foundation Assistant Programme Director Ajay Bijour said.<\/p>\n
The snow leopard landscape is dominated by Buddhists, who mostly grow peas and potatoes and have adapted themselves to co-exist with the wild animals as the species are deeply embedded in their folklore.<\/p>\n
However, wildlife experts have been expressing concern over the rising population of the abandoned dogs in high mountains that might pose a threat to the snow leopards and their food chain.<\/p>\n
A first-of-its-kind latest study by the state wildlife wing through the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) says the rise in population of feral dogs in habitat of the snow leopard is a matter of concern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How often do you see a critically endangered, elusive snow leopard, a flagship species for the high-altitude Himalayas, in nature? Rarely or never for some, believe wildlife experts. But Assistant Public Relations Officer Ajay Banyal spotted a roaming mother snow leopard with two cubs through the snow just close to Kaza, the headquarters of Spiti […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14183,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14182\/revisions\/14183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}