Snow leopard habitat endangered

ISLAMABAD: Road construction activity is fast degrading the snow leopard habitat in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Chitral, a report says.

It said two major roads, namely Karakoram Highway (KKH) and Gilgit-Shandur Road bisect snow leopard habitat. In the backdrop of the surging infrastructure growth in the region, WWF-Pakistan launched the sustainable infrastructure initiative in 2019 aimed at building the capacities of relevant stakeholders, raising awareness and advocating for sustainable and green infrastructure planning and development in the Hindukush-Karakoram-Himalaya (HKH) region.

Rapid infrastructure development, primarily roads, potentially degraded the snow leopard habitat, disrupting the big cats’ movement and increasing human-wildlife conflict in the region.

The WWF-Pakistan’s baseline research study was undertaken through a project ‘Building ecological and sustainable transport/linear infrastructure for now leopards in the Hindu Kush Karakoram Himalaya landscape in Pakistan (BEAST).”

The study said prey species of the snow leopard such as the Himalayan ibex and domestic livestock were also killed due to heavy traffic on the highways. It recommended striking a balance between boosting infrastructure development and the conservation of threatened wildlife such as snow leopards in the region.

The region is home to diverse wildlife, including vulnerable snow leopards, pointing out that the linear infrastructure development that cut through the landscape such as roads had fragmented the snow leopard habitat and their prey species such as ungulates.

WWF research indicated that fewer than 7,000 snow leopards remained globally of which approximately 200 to 420 inhabited the northern mountain ranges of Pakistan, including GB, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK).