Habitat:

• Mountainous regions of central and southern Asia.
• In India, their geographical range encompasses:
• Western Himalayas: Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh.
• Eastern Himalayas: Uttarakhand and Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
• Snow Leopard capital of the world: Hemis, Ladakh.
• Hemis National Park is the biggest national park in India and also has a good presence of Snow Leopard.

Protection Status:

• The snow leopard is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN-World Conservation Union’s Red List of the Threatened Species.
• In addition, it is also listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES).
• It is listed in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972.
• It is also listed in the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), affording the highest conservation status to the species, both globally and in India.

Conservation Efforts by India:

• The Government of India has identified the snow leopard as a flagship species for the high altitude Himalayas.
• India is also party to the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection (GSLEP) Programme since 2013.
• Himal Sanrakshak: It is a community volunteer programme, to protect snow leopards, launched in October 2020.
• In 2019, First National Protocol was also launched on Snow Leopard Population Assessment which has been very useful for monitoring populations.
• SECURE Himalaya: Global Environment Facility (GEF)-United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) funded the project on conservation of high altitude biodiversity and reducing the dependency of local communities on the natural ecosystem.
• Project Snow Leopard (PSL): It was launched in 2009 to promote an inclusive and participatory approach to conserve snow leopards and their habitat.
• Snow Leopard is on the list of 21 critically endangered species for the recovery programme of the Ministry of Environment Forest & Climate Change.
• Snow Leopard conservation breeding programme is undertaken at Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, Darjeeling, West Bengal.