Snow Leopard Survey

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Wildlife officials in Arunachal Pradesh are awaiting analysis of the data of a survey conducted in 2021 to ascertain the presence of the elusive snow leopard.

The data was collected from a high-altitude Himalayan belt across 11 wildlife divisions from Tawang in the west and Anini to the east and was sent to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

• Namdapha is the known home of three other large cats — tiger, leopard and clouded leopard. 
• The belief that the national park is also the habitat of the snow leopard is based on the claim of a hunter from the Lisu ethnic community that he possessed the skin of the carnivore.

• The snow leopard has never been spotted nor recorded in the Namdapha National Park and Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang district. 
• The 1,985 sq. km reserve bordering Myanmar has an elevation varying from 200 metres to 4,571 metres above sea level

Snow Leopard

• Snow leopards have a vast but fragmented distribution across the mountainous landscape of Central Asia, which covers different parts of the Himalayas such as Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Sikkim.
• It is the State animal of Himachal Pradesh.
• The Snow Leopard (also known as Ghost of the mountains) acts as an indicator of the health of the mountain ecosystem in which they live. It is because of their position as the top predator in the food web.
• Further, it is found in 12 range countries namely Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Conservation efforts

• IUCN status: Vulnerable
• Listed in CITES Appendix I
• Listed as threatened with extinction in Schedule I of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS) of Wild Animals since 1985.
• Listed in Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
• Flagship conservation species of India – part of 21 critically endangered species for the recovery program under MoEF&CC
• India is a party to the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection (GSLEP) Programme since 2013.
• SECURE Himalayas initiative of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
• Project Snow Leopard 2009.

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)

• Established as a Charitable Trust on 27 November, 1969, WWF India set out with the aim of reducing the degradation of Earth’s natural environment and building a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. In 1987, the organization changed it’s name from the World Wildlife Fund to World Wide Fund for Nature India. 
• With five decades of extensive work in the sector, WWF India today is one of the leading conservation organizations in the country.
• WWF India is a science-based organization which addresses issues such as the conservation of species and its habitats, climate change, water and environmental education, among many others.
• Their work is focused around six ambitious goals: Climate, Food, Forests, Freshwater, Oceans, Wildlife.

Its initiatives include

• Debt-for-Nature Swap
• Earth Hour
• Healthy Grown
• Marine Stewardship Council
• Living Planet Index