IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Maheshwari, A.; Takpa, J.; Angchok, T.; Rauf, A.; Ali, M. | |
| Living with large carnivores: mitigating large carnivore-human conflicts in Kargil, Ladakh, India | |
| 2012 Full Book | |
The present project was originated from the findings of the previous study in the same study area (Kargil). As a pioneering initiative, that study confirmed the presence of snow leopard in Kargil areas of Ladakh. Eastern Kargil was identified as one of the most promising areas during previous surveys for camera trapping and construction of a predator proof corral pen. The potential habitats for large carnivores were identified but their survival is threatened because of decline in prey base and hunting. The large carnivore-human conflict is posing a threat to wildlife at some of the localities of Kargil and needs to be mitigated immediately to conserve the large carnivores and maintain the co-existence between humans and wildlife. In addition, findings of the previous study showed that livestock depredation by large carnivores instigates retaliatory killing of snow leopard and Tibetan wolf in Kargil. Scat analysis revealed that domestic livestock comprised 45.5% of the diet of snow leopard while for Tibetan wolf domestic livestock comprised 54.6% of the diet. The value of overall density estimated 0.09/kmý for Asiatic ibex and for Ladakh urial 0.06/kmý in areas surveyed during 2009 through vantage points. It shows the high proportion of livestock depredation, low availability of prey base and represents the extreme of large carnivore-human conflict in Kargil. Therefore, keeping this in view, predator proof corral pens were proposed in Kargil to protect domestic livestock from depredation by snow leopard and Tibetan wolf. In the conservation awareness workshop (organised during the previous surveys) this issue was discussed with the locals and they were encouraged to avoid hunting. They also requested that basic infrastructure to protect their livestock such as predator proof corral pens be provided to them. Useful population estimation could not be done due to the rapid nature of the previous surveys. Therefore, in this study, camera trapping was also conducted to establish the relative abundance of snow leopard in Kargil. This study was felt necessary to establish the following objectives: 1. To study the relative abundance of snow leopard through camera trapping, 2. To undertake measures for mitigating snow leopard-human conflicts. |
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