towards project snow leopard - Nature Conservation Foundation

82 • Appendix 1
4.1. Effective high altitude wildlife conservation
4.1.1. Setting up a model for effective participatory conservation: A mechanism to involve
communities in conservation on a sustained basis needs to be evolved. Further, a
variety of models for alternative sources of income, incentive programmes, and
conflict resolution need to be developed.
4.1.2. Significant improvements in the abundance of the snow leopard and other wildlife: The
project should lead to reduction of pressures in the larger landscape and thus an
increase in natural prey of the snow leopard. It should thus reflect in an increase in
population of the snow leopard and other carnivores.
4.1.3. Creating ecological conditions for wildlife tourism, and facilitating required infrastructure:
Greater abundance of and reduced disturbance to wildlife should lead to better
visibility of wildlife. This will create opportunities for community-based wildlife
tourism that leads to enhanced revenues and involvement of local people.
4.1.4. Effective conservation breeding initiatives for selected endangered wildlife: Some highly
endangered species occur in the state. Snow leopard, musk deer and Himalayan tahr
are among these. Very few of the Greater Himalayan and Trans Himalayan species
are housed in any zoo of the country for educational purposes. It is thus important to
have a small and effective population of such animals in captivity. The project should
help create such facilities that can potentially assist in ex-situ conservation as and
when needed, as well as help increase awareness of these little known species.
4.2. Research, monitoring and information generation
4.2.1. Population estimates for snow leopard and its prey species: While the department is
making sincere efforts to ascertain the population of snow leopards in the state, it
has been an extremely difficult task given the inherent difficulties related with the
elusive species, difficult terrain and available techniques. The PSL should enable use
of all modern techniques for getting a good baseline and sustained gathering of this
information for the state.
4.2.2. Improved understanding of the nature and extent of human-wildlife conflict, and in
particular human-snow leopard conflict: This is a contentious issue and leads to losses
to the people and unpopularity of the department. Studies should be commissioned
to monitor these trends, look at the root causes and devise resolution strategies.
4.2.3. Rigorous research on wildlife ecology and human society: It is recognized that a lot of
ecological information is still missing that is critical to making informed conservation
decisions. Credible research on focused ecological subjects should be encouraged
under the PSL. It is also recognized that for implementation of most conservation
programmes, information on the society and human ecology is necessary.
4.2.4. Comprehensive inventorying of wildlife resources, in particular the snow leopard and