Title: on SP Betacam. 27 minutes.
The Hemis National Park-In search of the Blue sheep and the snow leopard

The cold desert and awe inspiring mountains of the Hemis National Park are as deserted as the moon! We see its beauty and feature the mountain goats and wolves and the treasure of Ladakh: the most beautiful animal in the world: the snow leopard!

The mountains and forests of Ladakh seem as quiet as a monastery but the monasteries themselves can break into sound and fury, crowds and colour.

The Hemis festival held in July draws thousands Ladakhis and tourists from all over the world.

Outside the Monastery, after the festival, the people play a Ladakhi version of the festival of Holi splashing water at each other and passers.

Everything seems different in this moonscape land at heights above 11,500 feet.

Just as the mountain goats and other animals of Ladakh are physically different from their counterparts from the plains, the people are unique too.

The geology of the area, caused by the crashing into place of the subcontinent was formed of rocks emerging from under the sea.

There is however an interesting mythological rendition harking back to how Ladakh became so different from neighbouring Kashmir .

Long, long ago, when Ladakh was as green and lush as Kashmir , they say, King Senge Namgyal lived happily with his queen but he had no children. On the advice of his courtiers he banished the barren queen and married again.

His banished queen was still so full of love and respect for her king and husband that she backed out of the palace sadly. She did not turn her back on her kingdom, but went on till she reached the area where now stands the Kargil-Srinagar road. Then saying her farewell to her life in Ladakh, she turned around & as soon as she did, the land turned into a desert behind her.

We have come to Ladakh, a land of unique experiences. And we are in search of its wildlife in the Hemis High altitude National Park .

The stupendous, jagged mountains, glacier-born torrents, cruel cliffs and the vast wilderness of rock and sand inspired awe in the hearts of man and gave rise to the Bon religion which was based on a reverence for nature. This deceptively calm desert breeds some of the most resilient and beautiful species known to mankind.

Rare and beautiful but also very elusive wildlife: A variety of longhaired and sure-footed mountain goats: the ibex, argali, nayan, shapu, chiru, bharal or the blue sheep, and their predator, the snow leopard.

Another predator is the medium-sized Himalayan black bear. Like most bears it feeds on practically anything ranging from fruit and ripe corn to sheep, goats, deer and even termites. Its usual home is in dug-out hollows or caves.

The wolf population is around 300 and consists of two basic varieties. The northern race is light fawn and brown whereas the southern is invariably darker.

These wolves, probably the most hated predators in Ladakh, hunt in pairs and move over vast territories.

There are smaller mammals like the marmot and the mousehares.

The habitat of all these creatures of the wild is protected, as the Hemis High Altitude National Park , since 1978, an area of more than 4,000 square kilometers. It has 4 entry points: Spituk, Nimu, Chiling and Jing Chain.

Beyond these entries there are no motorable roads, no jeep tracks, no means of communication and you will be at the mercy of the elements. The rocks and cliffs afford no shelter when it rains.

The temperature can get high when it is sunny and the ultra violet sunrays can really punish your skin and head.

The nights will be chilly, dark and silent.

The chortens and prayer flags give you a sense of assurance: happy people, people with faith have passed by, will again. There are few villages, no Forest patrol.

You will have every other luxury the trekking agencies can provide: tents, cooks, pack ponies, hot food and you can sleep with the sound of the streams gushing by. Trekkers swear by the beauty and peace of these routes however and come in great numbers to make way along this harsh but enchanting desert.

The sightings of wildlife are rare and difficult. Like this glimpses of the rare kiyangs or wild asses, and these playful marmots.

A magpie came to share our food at the Jing Chain camp, a wild dog bit one of our horses left to graze at the hillside beyond our camp in Rumbak, and chukors and other birds rushed around on flightless searches for food on the rocks.

The search for the magnificent goats in the wild seemed a distant dream. However, our paths towards the next campsite, Rumbak, at 13000 feet, inside the Park, are full of medicinal plants.

We met Yashveer Bhatnagar: Scientist, Wildlife nstitute Of India , Dehradoon, doing a research projrct on the ungulates of Ladakh.

“There is some problem with the Army positioned in the mountains. I am sure hunting has gone up, too. But the ;local people do not hunt the mountain goats: they call them Ridaks, or mountain monarch. They are sacred”. He told us.

The turmoil in the State has left people neglectful of the plight of wildlife, in National Parks whether it is in the Jammu region or the valley, or the mountain deserts of Ladakh.

The situation has deteriorated quickly over the last ten years. Priority for the Sate is securing the Border State , with an alert, vigilant and efficient Army.

The Army used to be very involved with conservation programs, but now their hands are full with border affairs so tense and volatile.

T he check posts are abandoned and we have only one reluctant Forester from the Wildlife Protection Department to guide us, who borrowed our binoculars to look out for the blue sheep.

The Wildlife Protection Department is under staffed and they have no facilities to keep rescued animals in captivity. Their budget is low and they have no incentives to roam the 4,000 sq. km Park on routine inspections.

The plans of a Nature Interpretation Centre with specimens of species found here, a library, checklists of all life forms in the Park, and audiovisual programs are not likely to be be realized soon.

the Park is still full of hamlets, dogs, domestic cattle, sheep and every camping site has a local landlord, who charges a rent per tent but provides nothing except the place, which is government property. Our doctor told us the old man was full of lice, and he had terrible skin diseases, high blood pressure and he needed a bath very very soon. But he wouldn't have a bath.

Growing livestock and village settlements inside the Park is leading to problems for the wildlife.

The Department has a forlorn look. But the rewards of their endeavors: the sight of healing forests compensates for all hardships and shortcomings.

We reached the snow leopard area in the Hemis National park , but the silence of the mountains was all we met.

Since the Hemis National Park is known to support snow leopard populations, and some of the habitat is fairly accessible, this may prove to be a feasible study site for ecological investigation.

The snow leopard is considered endangered in every region in which it is found: widely but sparsely distributed in the Himalayas of Tibet, Nepal, India, and Bhutan; Pakistan's Karakorum and Hindu Kush; in the high ranges of Afghanistan, Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan & Russia. Habitat is rugged & remote. Even Mt.Everest, is home to these endangered big cats.

The paucity of data on this animal can be attributed to the cat's elusiveness and the harsh climate and rugged terrain in which it lives.

The snow leopard is the greatest treasure of the Park and several foreign organizations are involved in trying to save it from a fate worse than death: extinction.

The snow leopard is not of the pantherine group like the common leopard nor is it related to the

Siberian tiger. It is called an ounce, of the genus, uncia uncia.

It has a thick fur to brave the chill, and its paws have hair cushions to walk on snow and rocks.

Adults weigh between 60 and 120 pounds and measure 39-51 inches from nose to tail. The fur is white, cream, or even gray, with round charcoal-gray or black rosettes.

It is different from the other big cats in its tail which is sometimes almost as long as its body, thickly furred and helps in keeping balance in the precariously high and craggy habitat.

The head is smaller with small ears and a heavy brow; its powerful legs are strong but short for its long body. Its paws are powerful and big.

Findings indicate that there are perhaps 7,000 snow leopards left in the wild. But it is more likely that the figure is much lower. It has been a challenging and daunting task to get exact statistics and other information on snow leopards that live in conditions that humans cannot endure.

The decline in its population is due to many reasons. The animal is hunted by the locals for its valuable pelt.

A serious threat to it also is the growing market for the bones, skin and other organs of rare animals for use in Asian traditional medicine.

Villagers snatch the snow leopard's food: the wild goats, so the snow leopard is driven to find alternatives.When snow leopards kill the livestock of local villagers, they are often hunted down and killed.

The Forest Department has to pay them a compensation for the killed cattle.

Humans have poached on his food, the wild sheep and goats, and their domestic livestock has driven them away wild ungulates from their grazing areas.

The villagers have to be encouraged to guard their animals more closely, especially when grazing close to good snow leopard habitat, and to ensure that key wild sheep and ibex lambing areas are not disturbed during critical times of the year, such as early summer.

Ineffective wildlife regulations in the region continue to threaten the future of the snow leopard. If these conditions continue, it is doubtful whether the snow leopard will survive, except in a few isolated areas or in captivity.

The snow leopard has never been known to attack humans. For feeding when not very hungry they sometimes eat game birds & small mammals such as hares, & marmots and the red panda.

To humans, snow leopards have always possessed some sacred essence of nature.

Ancient shamanist practices, later incorporated into Lamaist traditions, used a snow leopard's pelt as the vehicle on which the shaman rode to the upper spirits. ritual dances were performed around it.

The Snow Leopard's Wisdom Includes: Understanding one's shadow side Trusting one's inner self Agility Strength

Ability to stalk Understanding the power of silence

No other animal can be as beautiful, and mysterious as the snow leopard, as researchers and scientists have discovered. And blessed are those who have seen a snow leopard in the wild.

They live in solitary splendour in the high and remote mountains where few can see them.

It is often called the indicator specie: if the environment can sustain healthy population of snow leopards, everything is all right with the area and its other animals, birds and plants!

The snow leopard needs a large territory to survive and it reigns as the top of the food chain animal. It has become for the mountains of Ladakh, the symbol of the bio-diversity of the Park. If they are not well and cared for, the environment will disintegrate.

This International Snow leopard trust poster, an adaptation of the traditional Buddhist thangka titled Food Web of Central Asia's High Mountains by Leslie Nguyen shows how the smallest seed to a snow leopard, mountain plants and wildlife are interconnected.

Some years ago, a Wildlife Warden in the Hemis National Park brought back 3 snow leopard cubs, abandoned by their mother. She did take back two, but left one male cub. He was brought back and kept here, in the Wildlife Department grounds in a cage.

But they could not find any funds to feed the fast growing cub and had to transport it to the Darjeeling zoo.

Here he found other snow leopards in captivity and soon became a darling of the keepers at the Breeding centre at the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park .

Far away where the guns boom, and beyond, The Hemis National Park has treasures hidden well in its deserts, and mountains, its high passes and quiet and undisturbed stretches of land. Ladakh's wildlife deserves to be celebrated more by all Indians. So that the snow leopard and the ibex, the bharal and the bear, the hill foxes and the wolves, the birds and the bees, are also protected from forces as threatening to us as militancy in the mountains.

Hoker Bird Sanctuary

26 km. from Srinagar on the way to Gulmarg.

M.S.Bacha, Warden, North, and a wetland expert, dreams of making the Hoker bird sanctuary into another Bharatpur. Hoker is just a few miles from Srinagar , on the national Highway to Gulmarg.

It is full of 75,000 birds so secure now that they don't panic when the boats disturb them. They rise in a cloud of bird mass and settle down just yards away. It is the unknown birdwatchers' paradise. Mr. Bacha says he has started a Bird Conservation Society to motivate young people into becoming aware of the rich avifauna. But the young hunters bribe their way into the sanctuary to shoot like they did before the ban. A pall of fear and wariness hangs heavy on Hoker, with security guards and no visitors.

The lakes with marshy islands hum with bird song, mutterings and shrieks. It is full of mallards, cranes, greylag goose, Ruddy shelduck, common teal, red crusted pochard, coots, pintails, Gadwali, and local domesticated ducks. Militants had burned down the watchtower in Hoker, and were hiding in the floating or emergent islands across the waters. A single machan built in the middle is testimony to the fact that photographers were there. Narrow skiffs take visitors around the lake. Now, as a protected place, and undesirable elements flushed out, the watchtower has been rebuilt and no gun is allowed inside. The birds have come back; their sensitivity to danger is phenomenal. 270 sq. km as the Hoker Bird Sanctuary.