Union Minister of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change released the report on the Status of Snow leopards in India during the National Board for Wildlife meeting held in New Delhi on Januaury 30.
- The Snow Leopard Population Assessment in India (SPAI) Program is the first-ever scientific exercise.
718 snow leopards in the wild
- As per the report, India has an estimated 718 snow leopards in the wild.
- The snow leopard is known to be an elusive cat and located in mountainous terrain that is hard to access, and the exercise for the first time marks a base threshold for the animal’s numbers in India.
- The highest number of cats was estimated to be in Ladakh (477), followed by Uttarakhand (124), Himachal Pradesh (51), Arunachal Pradesh (36), Sikkim (21), and Jammu and Kashmir (nine).
- The current estimate puts the number of Indian snow leopards between 10% and 15% of the global population.
- The States conducted the surveys and the Dehradun based Wildlife Institute of India used software and statistical methods to estimate the number of individual cats that are present but not caught on camera and combined them with those caught on camera.
- The Snow Leopard Population Assessment in India (SPAI) began in 2019 and involves the World Wide Fund for Nature India and the Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysuru, along with the WII.
- The snow leopard is classified as ‘vulnerable’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and faces threats from freeranging dogs, human-wildlife conflicts and poaching.
Snow leopard: facts
- Snow leopard’s hind legs give the snow leopard the ability to leap six times the length of its body.
- Snow leopards are shy, elusive cats known for their solitary nature.
- These cats are most active at dawn and dusk, which is called a “crepuscular activity pattern” by scientists.
- Unlike other big cats, snow leopards can’t roar.
- Snow leopard conservation received a boost a decade ago with the Bishkek Declaration on Snow Leopard Protection being unanimously adopted at the World Snow Leopard Conservation Forum in 2013.
- World Snow Leopard Day is celebrated on 23 October.
- The GSLEP was initiated with the support of representatives from 12 snow leopard range countries (which includes India) and the international environmental community.
- Inner Asia region is home to most of the snow leopards. Inner Asia refers to the northern and landlocked regions spanning North, Central and East Asia. It includes parts of western and northeast China. nner Asia comprises of mountain ranges such as the Altai, Tian Shan, Nan Shan, Kunlun Shan, Pamir, Karakorum, Hindu Kush, and of course, the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas.
