Knowing about our natural treasures

“Wisp of clouds swirled around, transforming her into a ghost creature, part myth and part reality”, remarked by George B Schaller – a US based senior conservationist – when he came across a snow leopard just 150 feet away amidst the sheer wilderness in mountains of northern Pakistan, which he named as “the stones of silence”.  

Introduction to the Snow Leopard

Snow leopard (Panthera uncia), also known as ‘mountain ghost’ is the most charismatic and elusive large wild cat in the Asian highlands.

Challenges Faced by Snow Leopard Populations

Its global population comprises only 3500-7000 individuals, presently occurring in Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It has always been a challenge to maintain snow leopard populations due to its habitat overlapping with agro-pastoral activities of mountain dwellers. Habitat fragmentation is a common problem across all the range countries.

Snow leopards naturally prey upon wild goats and sheep found in the range areas but due to scarcity of natural prey they descend down to attack on domestic livestock including cattle, yak, goats and sheep, resulting in retaliatory killing by herders. One of the reasons for reduction of wild prey is illegal/subsistence hunting. Rampant hunting by poachers for use of body parts in traditional medicines in some parts of the range countries was also a big challenge to snow leopard populations. 

The Snow Leopard in Pakistan

Pakistan’s population of snow leopards comprises about 350-600 individuals, mostly found in the northern mountainous region, known as Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Chitral. The region is the land of highest peaks including Mount Godwin Austen or K-2 (28,251 feet), other four peaks above 26000 feet, and numerous above 20,000 feet, providing an ideal world for snow leopards. 

Conservation efforts in Gilgit-Baltistan for Snow Leopards

Pakistan’s snow leopards have recovered from the brink of extinction, due to rigorous conservation efforts, initiated in the 1990s, by organizations like WWF and IUCN together with the government of Gilgit-Baltistan involving local communities. Initially, it was a real challenge to convince herders not to harm snow leopards even when they would attack their livestock. For poor herders’ livestock rearing is the major source of livelihood and it was really a challenge to strike a balance between wildlife conservation and peoples’ livelihoods.

Community-Based Conservation Programs

Conservationists and policy makers with proactive involvement of local people in Gilgit-Baltistan introduced community-based conservation programs and initiated numerous conservation actions such as protection of wild prey, livestock insurance and afforestation schemes. For this purpose, community-based organizations (CBOs) were established at watershed/subwatershed level, ensuring representation of all households from that watershed.

The local hunters who used to hunt animals and birds for subsistence were employed under the community-based conservation programs as community wildlife watchers. Illegal hunting was banned and livestock grazing was regulated. The community wildlife watchers also kept an eye on locals to prevent use of poisons to kill large predators including snow leopards.

Trophy Hunting for Conservation

These community-based conservation efforts subsequently initiated trophy hunting programs involving protection of wild ungulates and offering few large male animals as trophies in the international markets.

Community-based trophy hunting of wild ungulates attracted hunters from across the world who pay up to $120,000 for a single trophy of Markhor (Capra falconeri – rare wild goat), $8,000 for blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur) and $3,500 for ibex (Capra ibex sibirica).  80% of the trophy hunting revenues go to the local community-based organizations and 20% to the government’s exchequer.

The community share is spent on paying community wildlife watchers and financing other socio-economic improvement initiatives such as provision of clean drinking water, micro-hydro electricity generation, afforestation, education and health support, etc. 

Rescuing and Rehabilitating Snow Leopards

Another challenge was to rescue or rehabilitate injured or orphaned snow leopards in Pakistan. Hence one of an orphaned/displaced snow leopard cub, namely ‘Leo’ was handed over to Bronx Zoo in New York in 2005 for conservation and breeding purposes. The Leo recovered in captivity and had a cub in 2013 after breeding with a female captive animal namely ‘Maya’ in the Zoo.

Now the Gilgit-Baltistan government with support of conservation organizations has established a basic facility to take care of displaced animals.  A female cub, namely ‘Lolly’ , recovered in 2012 from Khunjerab National Park, Gilgit-Baltistan is currently surviving in the newly established facility. However, the facility needs drastic structural improvements and financial support to be a state-of-the-art rehabilitation center.

At the time when the first cub “Leo” was handed over to the Bronx Zoo, the Gilgit-Baltistan government was expecting from conservation organizations to provide technical support in establishing a rehabilitation center. 

Positive Signs of Recovery

Currently the snow leopard populations in Gilgit-Baltistan show a positive sign of recovering, which is evident from frequent sightings of the animals in different protected and community-based conservation areas. The wild prey species population is also increasing due to the ban on illegal and subsistence hunting, primarily due to trophy hunting programs, yielding socio-economic benefits for local people.

Expanding Protected Areas for Snow Leopards

More than 50% of the area in Gilgit-Baltistan has been brought under the net of Protected Areas.

Collaborative Conservation Organizations

Other organizations such as Snow Leopard Foundation, Pakistan (SLFP) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) are now actively working and supporting local communities to conserve the snow leopard and its prey species.