Aishwarya Maheshwari

Living with Large Carnivores: Mitigate Large Carnivore-Human Conflicts in Kargil, Ladakh

Himalayan Brown bear.

Snow leopard.

This proposed project is originated from the findings of the previous surveys in Kargil. It was found that survival of large carnivores was threatened because of decline in prey base and hunting. It was investigated that locals are primarily concerned for livestock depredation by large carnivores and it instigate retaliatory killing of large carnivores in Kargil. Factors were listed for the conflicts such as lack of proper infrastructure for keeping livestock, lack of proper conservation awareness in the remote areas of Kargil. Therefore, it is very important to mitigate such conflicts to ensure the long term survival of large carnivores and establish and maintain harmony the co-existence of large carnivores and human.

Further, due to the rapid nature of the previous surveys, the useful population estimation could not be done, therefore, in this study camera trapping is proposed to establish the relative abundance of snow leopard in the study area.

Read about Aishwarya's previous project http://www.ruffordsmallgrants.org/rsg/projects/aishwarya_maheshwari or for more information contact aishwaryamaheshwari@gmail.com