Press Release

The Department of Wildlife Protection Jammu and Kashmir has been conducting surveys with partner NGOs, to understand the presence and abundanceof snow leopards under the Snow Leopard Population Assessment of India(SPAI) project funded by the Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change.

This iconic and culturally treasured great cat is a good indicator species as it quickly reacts to habitat disturbances and its successful conservation requires sustainable long-term systemic solutions to the threats impacting the quality of habitats.

Various teams have been conducting surveys across the near 12,000 km2 potential snow leopard of Jammu and Kashmir for a few years now covering Gurez, Thajwas, Baltal-Zojila, Warwan, and Kishtwar landscapes. There is extremely limited evidence of snow leopard occurrence across the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.

Recently, partners on this project, researchers from Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF) recorded images of snow leopard in the upper Baltal-Zojila region of Kashmir. Often snow leopard surveys have focused in neighbouring areas of Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The team involved in the camera trapping constitutes  of Mr Munib Khanyari (Programme Manager NCF), Mr Aashiq Dar (Tangmarg-Baramula), AijazRaina (Sarbal, near Sonamarg), Tanzin Thuktan (Kibber, Himachal Pradesh),Rinchen Tobge (Kibber, Himachal Pradesh), and Kesang Chunit (Kibber,Himachal Pradesh). They were supported extensively by the staff of theDepartment of Wildlife Protection and the research associates under the able guidance and support from Mr Suresh Kumar Gupta, IFS Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife)/Chief Wildlife Warden and Mr Rashid Y Naqash, Regional Wildlife Warden, Kashmir.

This finding brings renewed hope to Kashmir and its high-altitude regions, as the presence of the snow leopard can be used as a conservation flagship to address high-mountain development issues for people and the environment. In the coming days, more such findings from the ongoing surveys areexpected from these landscapes. The camera trapping exercise also revealedother important and rare species such as Asiatic ibex, Brown Bear andKashmir Musk Deer, besides Incredible information regarding other biodiversity components of such habitats, interactions and threats will be documented in the shape of a final report.

Contacts: Munib Khanyari – Programme Manager NCF – 9967744701 (munib@ncf-india.org), Department of Wildlife Protection, J&K (jkwildlife1972@gmail.com) (rwlwkashmir@gmail.com).

Use of Images:  Photographs associated with this press release are the copyright of Dr Munib Khanyari and NCF (Email: munib@ncf-india.org). The use of these photographs is strictly restricted to promotional media articles related to the study presented in this press release. The use of these images for any other purposes must only be with prior permission from the copyright holders.