In remote J&K national park, camera traps snap elusive snow leopard, read out a success story

As Ladakh became a separate UT, the Chief Wildlife Warden of J&K, Suresh Kumar Gupta, sent a proposal to the Centre — for taking up the ‘snow leopard project’ in high-altitude areas of J&K. The Centre suggested that the department seek guidance from the Mussoorie-based Nature Conservation Foundation — it eventually became “knowledge partner” in the project — and allocated funds last year, Gupta said.

Funds in place, J&K’s wildlife department conducted a survey and installed camera traps. It also sent teams to the area to collect information from nomads living nearby and check droppings, including hair of snow leopards.

For Gupta, the efforts have come to fruition, as images from the camera traps affirm.

“Of the four catchment areas of the national park spread over 2,195 sq km — in Marwah and Dachhan areas — camera traps have captured images of three snow leopards in Renai,” Gupta said. These are believed to be a mother and two cubs, he added.

“Earlier, camera traps had captured two snow leopards in Nant Nullah area,” Gupta said. All these, he pointed out, are besides images of one snow leopard captured at Kyar and Kibber catchment areas. “While we have confirmed sighting of six to eight snow leopards in Kishtwar High-Altitude National Park, their number may be higher, as we are yet to retrieve camera traps from areas which are (still) under snow,” the UT’s wildlife chief noted.

The department has installed 90 cameras in the national park, apart from 25 or so in adjoining areas outside.

Listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list in view of their depleting numbers — there are estimated to be fewer than 10,000 mature snow leopards across the globe — these animals usually live above the tree line on alpine meadows and in rocky regions at elevations of 2,700 metres to 6,000 metres during summer. In winter, they come down to elevations around 1,200 m to 2,000 m.

And this is where Kishtwar National Park — in the eponymous district abutting Zanskar area of Ladakh — at an altitude ranging between 2,300 m and 6,000 m comes in.

But the work may only have just begun for the team at the wildlife department. “After their sightings, we will now prepare a landscape management plan, besides collecting their droppings for DNA sequencing to find sub-species among them,” Gupta said.

Sightings of snow leopards is an affirmation of the effectiveness of the department’s conservation strategies for the park, including habitat protection, anti-poaching initiatives, community engagement and scientific research, another department officer said.