Javadekar seeks global effort to double snow leopard population

Union Environment Minister Prakash Javekar on Wednesday sought global cooperation to double population of sw leopards in coming deces at  launch of  first national protocol to enumerate sw leopard population in India. Javekar was dressing  inaugural session of fourth steering committee meeting of Global Sw Leopard and Ecosystem Protection (GSLEP) programme at Vigyan Bhawan on occasion of International Sw Leopard Day. "All countries can work toger and enumerate number of sw leopards. We will strive to double sw leopard population in world in coming dece," said Prakash Javekar.

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Minister also pointed out that importance of enumeration of such animals is to double ir population as early as possible. " two-day conference is very important because I believe that discussions, deliberations, cooperation, learning from each or and sharing best practices make us all rich," Javekar said.

Highlighting recently conducted tiger survey, Prakash Javekar said, "It was a challenging exercise, but India has done it and population has touched 2,967 tigers, which is 77% of world tiger population. Just like that, we will go ahe with conservation of sw leopards." Twelve range countries have come toger on International Sw Leopard Day to undertake a massive exercise to get global count of sw leopards and strive to double its alrey existing population. nations participating are – Russia, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Bhutan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

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Sw leopards in India

India is believed to have 400-700 sw leopards spre across four Himalayan states – Himachal Presh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Presh, and  Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Lakh. India is believed to have third-highest population of sw leopards, after China and Mongolia, however, an exact count is t yet available. Poaching is a major threat to high altitude predator, so is clearing of forest cover to make way for ros and building constructions. Project Sw Leopard is an initiative by  Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change which aims to conserve country's unique natural herit of high altitude wildlife population and ir habitats by promoting conservation through participatory policies and actions.

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