Plan to Double Snow Leopard Numbers: Minister Prakash Javadekar

New Delhi: Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday that a protocol has been decided among the member countries to be the roadmap for enumeration of snow leopards. He added that once the enumeration is completed, the plan is to double the population of snow leopards in the world.

Addressing the inaugural session of the fourth steering committee meeting of the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection (GSLEP) programme on the occasion of International Snow Leopard Day, Javadekar said the maximum population of snow leopards is in Mongolia and China. Giving the example of India’s success in counting tigers, he said the exercise was difficult till 20 years back but now India has done it and the population has touched 2,967 tigers, which is 77 percent of the world tiger population. India has rich ecology with 500 lions, 30000 elephants, and 2500 single horn rhinos. On snow leopards, he said that there is confidence that once the protocol has been finalized, it will help all the countries in the count which can then strive to double the population of snow leopards in the coming decade. India will have a separate programme on snow leopards to include green pathways in the Himalayan region where they are found to also assist in livelihood creation and create an ecosystem, the Minister said. (IANS)

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