Snow leopard count up by 62 per cent in Himachal Pradesh over four years: Survey

The population of rare snow leopards in highaltitude tribal areas of Himachal Pradesh has increased by 62 per cent over the past four years says a newly released surveyThe count stood at 51 in 2021 according to the baseline survey conducted by the Wildlife Wing of the state Forest Department It has now increased to 83 officials said on Friday citing the study conducted during the past one yearThe survey also involved strong community participation indicating that the longterm conservation plans with community involvement are bearing results they addedThe new survey released on Thursday the first day of the Wildlife Week being observed from October 2 to 8 said the count excluded cubs and exceeded the estimated upper confidence limit of 73 over the 2021 survey reflecting possible expansion of habitatsThe survey was conducted through a largescale camera trapping exercise across six sites over an area of 26000 sq km The snow leopards and their habitats were detected in the tribal areas of LahaulSpiti Kinnaur and the Pangi valleyHowever the study also recorded their presence beyond the protected areas which comprise the Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary Great Himalayan National Park Sechu Tuan Nallah Wildlife Sanctuary and Asrang Wildlife SanctuaryIn addition to snow leopards the survey also drew distribution maps for key prey species such as the blue sheep Himalayan ibex and musk deer as well as other highaltitude mammals such as Himalayan wolves brown bears leopards red foxes and martensNotably the study reported the first official sighting of Pallass cat in Kinnaur and the rediscovery of the woolly flying squirrel in Lahaul highlighting the rich biodiversity of the stateAccording to the officials community involvement was key to the surveys success Local youths and women from Kibber village in Spiti assisted with camera trap deployments and data analysis while frontline forest officers and other community members supported field operations The survey was completed in one year compared to the threeyear timeline in 2021 they saidThe survey was costeffective and prepared a scalable framework for longterm snow leopard monitoring in India Himachal Pradesh is now the first state in the country to conduct a second statewide snow leopard assessment they addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever