India is a roughly triangle-shaped country in southern Asia, bounded on the north by the world's tallest mountains--the Himalayas--and on the east, west, and south by oceans.  The recent high-tech boom and growing middle class in India's bustling cities contrast with the centuries-old lifestyle of subsistence agriculture still common in rural areas. Rapid population growth over the past few decades--India is currently home to over a billion people--has placed growing demands on the country's natural environment and wilderness areas.  Military conflict and the disputed border with Pakistan create additional conservation challenges in snow leopard areas.  Click on the map below for a more detailed look at this snow leopard range country.

Quick Links:

• Fast Facts - Answers to common questions about this snow leopard range country

• Threats to Snow Leopards  - Challenges that put India's cats at risk

• Programs - How the Snow Leopard Trust is working in India to help

• Country Profile - Further information about India's environment, history, people, and economy

Fast Facts

Area: 3,287,590 sq km (about 1/3 the size of the U.S.)
Area of snow leopard habitat: 75,000 sq km
Highest point: Kanchenjunga, 8,586 m (world's third-tallest peak)
Human population: 1,065,070,607 (July 2004 est.)
Snow leopard population: 200-600
Average income (in US$) of people living in snow leopard areas: $378-638
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Threats to Snow Leopards

Challenges that put India's cats at risk

Reduction of natural prey due to competition with livestock

As a growing human population pushes further into remote areas, their livestock herds often overgraze wild grasslands, leaving less food for the wild sheep and goats that are the snow leopard's primary prey.  As wild sheep and goat populations decline, snow leopards go hungry.

Killing of snow leopards in retribution for livestock depredation

When their wild prey is scarce, snow leopards sometimes turn to domestic livestock for food.  Herders, who lead a precarious economic existence with most of their family wealth bound up in their herds, may kill snow leopards in retaliation. 

War and related military activites

Some of India's best snow leopard habitat lies within the disputed northwestern frontier province of Jammu and Kashmir.  Militarization of this region and repeated skirmishes with Pakistan over the past several decades put snow leopards in danger and make scientific studies and conservation programs impossible to carry out. 

Programs

How the Snow Leopard Trust is working in India to help

Community-based conservation: Livestock insurance program

The community-designed and -run livestock insurance program helps compensate people in five northern Indian villages for losses of livestock to predators.  When herders are compensated financially for occasional losses to predators, they are less likely to kill snow leopards in retaliation.  The program also tries to make snow leopard predation on livestock less likely by promoting sustainable herding practices.  In one village, residents have also set up a livestock-free grazing reserve in order to leave more food for the snow leopard's wild prey.

Research and monitoring

The Snow Leopard Trust is supporting or carrying out research in several areas of India. For example, a trap camera study in Hemis National Park recently demonstrated that this research method is a good way to capture images of--and information about--the elusive cat. A researcher supported by the Trust's Grants Program recently investigated how to translate snow leopard pug marks, scat, and other sign into an estimate of snow leopard abundance.