Rare sighting of snow leopard in Kashmir, conservationists elated
SRINAGAR : A snow leopard has been sighted on camera in Kashmir, almost a year after the Jammu and Kashmir government started a census of the threatened species found in the high mountains of the Himalayas. The sighting has brought hope among wildlife conservationists who said there is limited evidence of snow leopards across the union territory.
An adult leopard - Panthera Uncia - has been identified from pictures captured using infrared camera traps, in early October, in the upper Baltal-Zojila axis at a height of 3500-3800 metres above sea level.
“This is the first robust evidence of a snow leopard in Kashmir
on a camera trap. Earlier, we used to have anecdotal evidence or somebody would say that they captured the animal on a handheld device,” said Munib Khanyari, programme manager of National Conservation Foundation (NCF), who is heading one of the teams J&K wildlife authorities have assigned to trace the animal. Preferring solitary in icy mountains, the cat is rarely spotted and hardly photographed. Weighing up to 75 kg (165 lb), the snow leopard has a thick, soft grey coat with ringed black spots to help it camouflage itself among rocks. In 2012, two adult snow leopards were also caught on infrared cameras in the Kargil district, then part of J&K.
“We saw its pug marks in late October, so we checked the cameras, and its picture was captured in early October,” Khanyari said. Last October, wildlife protection authorities in J&K started a population census of snow leopards on the directions of the ministry of the environment, forest and climate change (MoEF&CC).