India Has 718 Snow Leopards, Ladakh Alone Home To 477, Finds First-Ever Survey

The first-of-its-kind survey has put the number of the highly elusive snow leopards in India at 718.

According to the 'Snow Leopard Population Assessment in India' (SPAI) carried out by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), one area - Ladakh is home to nearly two-thirds of the snow leopard population. As per the figures released by the Union Environment Ministry, the UT has a snow leopard population of 477.

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Snow leopard count in India

In the survey carried out between 2019 and 2023 by WII in association with all snow leopard range states and two conservation partners -- the Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysuru, and WWF-India, a total of 241 unique snow leopards were photographed.

Uttarakhand had the second-largest snow leopard population in India (124) followed by Himachal Pradesh (51) Arunachal Pradesh (36) Sikkim (21) and Jammu and Kashmir (9).

Snow leopard survey

The SPAI used a two-step framework and covered approximately 1,20,000 km2 of crucial snow leopard habitat across the trans-Himalayan region, including Union territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, and states such as Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh.

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How the study was carried out

The first step involved evaluating snow leopard spatial distribution, incorporating habitat covariates into the analysis, and aligning with the guidelines of the national population assessment of snow leopards in India by the environment ministry in 2019.

This systematic approach included assessing the 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.

During the SPAI exercise, total efforts included 13,450 km of trails surveyed for recording snow leopard signs and camera traps at 1,971 locations for 180,000 trap nights.

WWF

Snow leopard occupancy was recorded in 93,392 km2, with an estimated presence in 1,00,841 km2.

¡°The SPAI is the first-ever scientific exercise that reports a snow leopard population of 718 in India," the ministry said in a statement.

Snow leopards, all you need to know

According to the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF), the snow leopards -- with thick grey fur dotted with dark spots, and large paws that act as natural snow shoes -- are "masters of stealth and camouflage".

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) describes the solitary cat as the "ghost of the mountains" for its ability to hide, noting numbers are "decreasing mostly due to habitat loss, poaching, and the impacts of climate change".

snow leopard trust

According to the IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, the snow leopard is classified as 'Vulnerable'.

The Snow Leopard Trust, a US-based conservation group, says the exact total number is not known but that "there may be as few as 3,920 and probably no more than 6,390" across 12 countries in Asia.

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