People-wildlife conflict has endangered snow leopards

Jammu, Jan 16: The rare 'snow leopard' species, found in the upperHimalayan regions, is facing serious threat due to increasedpeople-wildlife conflicts, noted wildlife conservationist RinchanWangchuk has said.

''Serious efforts are needed to protect the 'big cat', which is apredator and an indicator species of mountain bio-diversity,'' SnowLeopard Conservancy (India) Director Rinchan Wangchuk said in a seminarat the University of Jammu hee yesterday.

''There is a strong need to reduce this (people-wildlife) conflictthrough local involvement in finding innovative and simple locallyeffective solutions,'' he said.

Initiation of environmental awareness campaigns, sensitisation ofcommunities and strengthening community stewardship of alpineeco-systems can be some of the initiatives, Mr Wangchuk said.

Snow Leopards are found in the upper reaches of the Himalayas,including India, Nepal, Tibet, Pakistan, Russia, Bhutan, Mongolia,China and Central Asian countries.

Mr Wangchuk, who is passionately involved in the battle to saveendangered 'snow leopard' in India, pointed out increased humanencroachment, war and internal strife, poverty, habitat degradation assome of the serious threats to the wildlife.

''The real question is how to maintain depredation at a manageablelevel while helping local people to perceive the greater worth ofhaving a live snow leopard than a pelt of one that took theirlivestock,'' said the son of Mr Wangchuk, who was conferred withMahavir Chakra twice.

In a survey, Mr Wangchuk, said, ''We found they (farmers) werelosing 13 per cent of their valuable livestock to snow leopards andwolves incurring a loss of over Rs 12,000 annually. Such a loss is ahuge economic impact for a poor family... and are oftenly met withretaliatory killings of this endangered cat.'' He advocated for helpinglocals in improving their corral and herding techniques to reducelivestock losses. ''By this local communities can be trained andassisted to set-up home-stays, work as wildlife guides, and set-upsmall eco-tourism enterprises.

''The income these mountain people earn from tourists who come tosee and learn about the snow leopard helps offset livestock losses, andpay for children's school fees and the cost of alternative fuel toreduce reliance on scarce fuel wood,'' Mr Wangchuk added.

UNI