Why in news?

• To protect highly endangered species, ranging from the elusive endangered pheasant western tragopan to the musk deer and the Himalayan tahr in the Great Himalayan National Park, a Unesco World Heritage site in the north-west Himalayas, is a Herculean task for a forest official
• Park authorities fear for their vulnerability to poaching from human settlements in the buffer zone known as an eco-zone.
• The Great Himalayan National Park is spread over 90,540 hectares. It comprises the upper mountain glacial and snow melt water sources of several rivers, and the catchments of water supplies that are vital to millions of downstream users.