KISHTWAR: According to a senior wildlife protection department officer, at least three video traps have verified the existence of snow leopards outside of Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar High Altitude National Park on Tuesday. The development can guarantee that the threatened species are properly conserved. Three video traps placed in the higher levels of Padder revealed the presence of snow leopards, wildlife warden Majid Bashir (Chenab Division) said.Using images from camera traps, department research teams verified in May that snow leopards were present in the Kishtwar National Park. With the assistance of the Mysore-based NGO Nature Conservation Foundation, Bashir added, 48 camera traps were set up in Padder, Gandhari, and Machail. Eight of these cameras were recently retrieved, and three of them provided proof that snow leopards were present in the Padder area. “This is for the first time that the presence of snow leopards was captured in camera traps outside the national park,” Bashir stated.The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed snow leopards as vulnerable. They are primarily found at elevations between 3,000 and 4,500 metres, and sightings of these animals have been reported in the snow-bound regions of the Kishtwar National Park, as well as in the Jammu region, parts of central and north Kashmir, and the Union Territory of Ladakh. Under the Union Environment Ministry’s snow leopard project, the wildlife department started a first-of-its-kind population survey expedition in November 2021. The mission of the expedition was to determine the area that the species inhabits and the obstacles that need to be overcome for proper protection. Based on information obtained from the camera traps, Bashir, who is also in charge of the Kishtwar National Park, stated that there are nine snow leopards in the area. Before winter arrived last year, up to 278 camera traps were put up at 135 different spots around the national park. According to him, more than two dozen video traps showed the snow leopards’ existence.
