Union Minister of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav unveiled the report on the Status of Snow Leopards in India during the National Board for Wildlife meeting held in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The Snow Leopard Population Assessment in India (SPAI) Program, the nation's inaugural scientific undertaking, discloses a population of 718 snow leopards in India.
Spearheaded by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), with support from snow leopard range states and partners like the Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysuru, and WWF-India, the SPAI systematically covered over 70% of the potential snow leopard range.
Encompassing approximately 120,000 km2 of crucial snow leopard habitat across the trans-Himalayan region, including UTs of Ladakh and J & K, and states such as Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh, the SPAI exercise employed a meticulous two-step framework from 2019 to 2023.
The first step involved evaluating snow leopard spatial distribution, incorporating habitat covariates into the analysis, aligning with the guidelines of the National population assessment of snow leopards in India by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in 2019.
This systematic approach included assessing spatial distribution through an occupancy-based sampling approach in the potential distribution range.
In the second step, snow leopard abundance was estimated using camera traps in each identified stratified region.
Throughout the SPAI exercise, efforts included surveying 13,450 km of trails for recording snow leopard signs and deploying camera traps at 1,971 locations for 180,000 trap nights. A total of 241 unique snow leopards were photographed, with recorded occupancy in 93,392 km2 and an estimated presence in 100,841 km2.
The report breaks down the estimated snow leopard population in different states: Ladakh (477), Uttarakhand (124), Himachal Pradesh (51), Arunachal Pradesh (36), Sikkim (21), and Jammu and Kashmir (9).
The survey marks a significant leap in understanding the snow leopard's range, providing preliminary information for 80% of the habitat, compared to 56% in 2016.
The report emphasises the need for a dedicated Snow Leopard Cell at WII under the MoEFCC for long-term population monitoring, supported by well-structured study designs and consistent field surveys.
The call for regular assessments every fourth year in the snow leopard range is highlighted, providing valuable insights for identifying challenges, addressing threats, and formulating effective conservation strategies to ensure the long-term survival of these elusive creatures.
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