1st Scientific Exercise Finds 718 Snow Leopards In India, Highest In Ladakh

India has an estimated 718 snow leopards in the wild, according to a first-of-its kind, four-year long estimation exercise, the results of which were made public on Tuesday. Known to be an elusive cat and located in mountainous terrain that is hard to access, the numbers for the first time mark a base threshold for the animal’s numbers in India.

The maximum number of cats were estimated to be in Ladakh (477), followed by Uttarakhand (124), Himachal Pradesh (51), Arunachal Pradesh (36), Sikkim (21), and Jammu and Kashmir (9).

The current estimate puts the number of Indian snow leopards from 10-15% of the global population.

The exercise involved setting up cameras, or ‘camera traps,’ in 1,971 locations and surveying 13,450 km worth of trails which teams surveyed for recording signs of snow leopards such as scat, hair and other body markers.