Snow Leopard

About:

• The snow leopard has never been spotted nor recorded in the Namdapha National Park and Tiger Reserve in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh.
• The belief that the national park is also the habitat of the snow leopard is based on the claim of a hunter from the Lisu ethnic community that he possessed the skin of the snow leopard.

Snow leopards:

• Snow leopards are native to the alpine regions of Central Asia.
• The 12 snow-leopard range countries are – Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Russia and Uzbekistan.
• In India, snow leopards inhabit the higher Himalayan and trans-Himalayan region at an altitude between 3,000-5,400 metres.
• Snow leopard states are Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh.

Conservation:

• It is listed as ‘Vulnerable’ on the IUCN red list of threatened species.
• It is protected under Schedule I of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972
• Also, it is listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES).

 

---

Source : The Hindu