Snow leopard kills 37 livestock in Ladakh

A snow Leopard killed 37 sheep and Pashmina goats in a remote village near here, taking the number of livestock perished in wild animal attacks over the past four weeks in the district to170, officials said on Wednesday.

The snow leopard strayed into the Yourgo village from a nearby forest and entered the livestock shed of Tsering Dorjay during the intervening night of April 19-20, the officials said.

Executive Councillor for Wildlife Konchok Stanzin immediately sent a wildlife team to the village to catch the snow leopard.

Caught snow leopard will be released back into the wild after a few days, he said, expressing grief over the huge loss of livestock which is the only means of sustenance for the nomad family.

He also directed wildlife warden to assess the livestock loss for giving timely compensation and also instructed him to provide a corral pen to the family for protecting the remaining livestock.

Konchok also directed the concerned to sanction a unit of sheep and goat to the affected family to recover the loss while the Revenue Department Durbuk was directed to assess the livestock loss.

This was the fourth wild animal attack on livestock within four weeks in the district, resulting in the killing of 170 cattle including 52 Pashmina goat kids in a wolf attack reported in the same village (Yourgo) on March 30.

Earlier on March 28, a snow Leopard killed 39 sheep at Ronjuk Khardong and two days later a Lynx killed 42 sheep and goats at Kherapulla Kargyam village.

Eurasian Lynx or Ee in Ladakhi is one of the medium-sized Wildlife cats which roam the high and cold snow covered mountains of Ladakh Himalaya. The cat is agile and strong and is highly adapted to the thin air atmosphere of Ladakh.