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Maheshwari, A.; Takpa, J.; Kujur, S.; Shawl, T.
An Investigation of Carnivore-Human Conflicts in Kargil and Drass areas of Jammu and Kashmir, India
2010 Full Book
The snow leopard (_Uncia uncia_) is a large cat native to the mountain ranges of central and southern Asia. It is widely distributed over an area of 3.02 million kmý and highly threatened throughout its range. The total snow leopard population is estimated to be between 4,500 and 7,500 across 12 countries, _viz._, Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It is categorized as endangered in the IUCN Red Data Book and is listed in Appendix I of the CITES. The habitat of snow leopard is characterized by cold, arid and semiarid shrub land, grassland or barren areas. Constant efforts towards documenting information about snow leopard are providing valuable insights into snow leopard biology. Recent studies on the different aspects of snow leopard's ecological status have produced valuable information on movement pattern, home range, behaviour and habitat use. Similarly, efforts have been made at the community level to minimize the snow leopard-human conflicts and threats to the habitat of snow leopard and associated species. Still, there are areas from where very poor information is available on snow leopard and associated species. Keeping this in view, Kargil and Drass areas of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir were identified as "gaps" in available information on snow leopard. Kargil has not received much attention for wildlife studies due to its proximity to the International Boundary between India and Pakistan and resultant security implications. The only information available from the area is from a study done by Sathyakumar (2003) on the occurrence of Himalayan brown bear from Zanskar and Suru Valleys in Ladakh. But there was very poor information on the occurrence and distribution of other carnivores and conflicts with humans in Kargil. Therefore, this study was felt necessary to establish the following _objectives_: 1. Surveys for the occurrence and distribution of snow leopard and other large carnivores and their prey 2. To estimate abundance of prey species 3. To study food habits of snow leopard and other carnivores based on scat analysis 4. To study the of carnivore - human conflicts 5. To study the socio-economic conditions of rural community and develop local awareness programme
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