After the first photographic evidence of black leopard near Kolhapur, its cousin snow leopard has been photographed for the first time in Kargil. The WWF-India researcher Aishwarya Maheshwari encountered the elusive cat on June 13.
“This is the first photographic evidence of snow leopard in Kargil and Drass sector of Jammu and Kashmir. Though locals claim to have seen the animal, there was no evidence of presence of the big cat,” said Ameen Ahmed, senior communications manager, WWF-India. According to him, till date, there was no study of wildlife in the area. “WWF-India has undertaken the base line study of wildlife in Kargil and Drass sector for the first time,” Ahmed said.
“I was on the frontier of India’s remotest wildness, to study wildlife. Kargil, among largest districts of India, is best known in recent history for the major military conflict that occurred here in 1999. This unfortunately overshadowed the region’s rich wildlife. For, it is here that one of world’s most elusive creatures- the snow leopard, roams wild and free,” said Maheshwari. During his interaction with locals, Maheshwari learnt about the tremendous decline in wildlife sightings, post-1999 Kargil war. So much so that even the common resident birds had disappeared.
“It was on June 13, I was observing Kargil’s hills like any other day. This day, started at 7:30 am from the village Kanji, located 3850 meter above sea level and some 70 km from Kargil town. I was on my way up field assistants - three local youth, one of whom was a forest guard.” Maheshwari said. Four km into the trek they came across a herd of Asiatic Ibex, a species of mountain goat. As they moved along the dusty, rocky path, indirect evidences of the presence of carnivores like pug marks and scat of snow leopard and Tibetan wolf like started coming up.
“At around 4:40pm, a huge cloud of dust rose from where the Ibex were grazing. The view through my binoculars suddenly became hazy. All I could see was the wild goats running helter-skelter, in almost every direction. I wanted to find the reason and desperately panned my binoculars in all directions. But, the dust that arose made it difficult to find the cause of this commotion,” Maheshwari said.
He was excited at something rarely experienced. “Amidst confusion, I was trying to get a clear view with trembling hands and spotted a tail in the speaks of dust, and it was not a wolf,” he said. It was snow leopard, that had silently stalked the herd. But the goats actually outsmarted it and gave it a miss and reappeared on a nearby ridge. After the failed attempt, the snow leopard went to a cliff, looked down on a vast valley of stones and rocks. Soon everyone in the group wanted to have a glimpse of one of the world’s rarest cats. “Though they were locals, the field assistants, surprisingly, had never seen one before. The guard had seen it six years ago, but that was probably for just a second,” Maheshwari said.
The Snow Leopard stayed put in front of the group for seven minutes. “As it was barely 300-400 meter away, I was tempted to go closer and capture the animal in camera. At the end of the shortest seven minutes of my life, it got up and went to the other side of the hill out of our sight,” Maheshwari said. Still hopeful of seeing it, he followed the Ibex herd anticipating that the wild cat would comeback to hunt them. “Early next morning, fresh scat and unclear pug marks were found on the same path. I climbed the same hill, which I had ascended last evening, but there was no snow leopard,” he said.
