India on Wednesday launched a national protocol for enumeration of the snow leopard, an elusive predator found in high-altitudes, and exhorted the 12 range nations to aim towards doubling the population of the mystic cats whose number is around 7,000 world over.
Faced with habitation loss, prey reduction and poaching, there are just 700 snow leopards left in India, mainly spotted in Himalayan regions of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
Addressing the inaugural session of the fourth steering committee meeting of the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection (GSLEP) programme here, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javedkar on Wednesday said that a national protocol on Snow leopard population assessment in India has been finalized.
“Once we get a total count of the snow leopards, each of the countries will then strive to double the population of this endangered wild animal, which is immensely critical for our ecosystem,” he said on the occasion of the International Snow Leopard Day on Wednesday.
Every year, October 23 is celebrated to protect and conserve the snow leopards and preserve the beautiful wildlife of the Himalayas.
The Minister said, India will have a separate programme on snow leopards to include green pathways in the Himalayan region.
As many as 12 range countries, including China, Russia, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Krgyzstan, Nepal, Bhutan, Uzbekista and Kazakhstan are participating in the two-day steering committee meeting being organized to assess the efforts being made to conserve the animal's habitat and curb poaching and illegal wildlife trade.
The Snow Leopard is fighting a battle of survival with only 7,500 of them estimated to have been left in the mountain ranges of Central Asia and South Asia, where they are facing rising pressure due to habitat loss. Known to be among the top predators in the Himalayan ecosystem, the animal is listed among the 'vulnerable species' in the IUCN Red List of threatened species.
India is believed to have the third highest population of snow leopards, after China and Mongolia, however, an exact count is not yet available.
Union Environment Secretary CK Mishra said that the protocol has been developed by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Nature Conservation Foundation, in discussion with the five Himalayan States. With the guidance of the SPAI protocol the snow leopard range states in India will be able to estimate distribution and population of snow leopards and prey using uniform methodology, such that estimates from the different States are comparable and a national level estimate may be achieved.
“ This protocol will inspire other range countries of snow leopard across Asia to develop their country specific protocols”, said Mishra.
In 2017, at the International Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Conservation Forum in Bishkek, the range country governments formally endorsed a plan to develop a global snow leopard population assessment. The ambitious initiative, called PAWS (Population Assessment of the World's Snow Leopards), aims to produce a robust estimate of the threatened cat's population status within the next 5 years.
It is being overseen by the Steering Committee of the Global Snow Leopard & Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP), which is comprised of the Environment Ministers of all twelve snow leopard range states.