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Trailing the elusive cat

Dr Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi has spent a decade studying snow leopards in the high altitude regions of the Himalayas. He talks to Pooja Patel about his journey

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Dr Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi describes the first time he saw a snow leopard as “magical”. “It was a female with her cub. They were being followed by a male. I remember the mother being very protective of her cub in the male's presence.” He recalled seeing the female in camera trap images and named her 'Sunshine' and the cub 'Shadow'. This was in 2008, when Suryawanshi, better known as Kullu, was visiting the Spiti Valley in Himachal Pradesh. As an intern with Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF), Kullu was there to assist in the setting up of camera traps to monitor and estimate the snow leopard population in the region.

The wildlifer has come a long way since then. What started as an enthusiastic internship opportunity has now transformed into a career; he is now a scientist with NCF, and is also the India Programme Director of the Snow Leopard Trust. “When I started out, the prevailing idea was that the snow leopard could be dependent on livestock. However, over time, I've found that this is not true,” says the 31-year-old, who had spent six harsh winter months in the high altitude of Spiti even as he pursued a master's in science degree during that first visit. 

During the six-month field trip, Kullu studied the winter feeding behaviour of bharal (blue sheep), an important snow leopard prey species. “Snow leopards do eat a lot of livestock but their population increases if there is adequate wild prey i.e. bharal. Snow leopards need wild prey for their survival. They will, of course, kill livestock as and when they encounter them, but livestock alone cannot support snow leopards.”

Much before he came upon this conclusion, Kullu had helped Himachal Pradesh's forest department launch Project Snow Leopard in 2009 — a high-profile, five-year project along the lines of Project Tiger. This was the first project to recognise and articulate that protected areas (national parks and wildlife sanctuaries) are not sufficient to conserve snow leopard and its prey species. It acknowledged that in the Himalayan and the Trans-Himalayan regions, wildlife is spread across the landscape and that successful conservation of these species requires working with local pastoral people to conserve these species outside protected areas. “I met and discussed with local pastoral people from 25 villages in the Upper Spiti Region of Himachal Pradesh to understand what could be done to promote conservation of wildlife alongside the development of local people. This approach was (and still is) very novel in wildlife conservation which is led by the state,” says Kullu.   

Kullu takes pride in the fact that he was able to contribute to the project management plan, which directly impacted snow leopard conservation, and became a tremendous learning experience for him. With the project came the realisation that snow leopards in the Himalayan regions have a severe impact on herders' livestock population — an integral part of their livelihoods. In response to the loss of their livestock, these herders often persecute the carnivores. “Snow leopards kill a lot of livestock and in some places up to 70 per cent of their diet constitutes livestock,” says the 31-year-old.

This prompted Kullu to identify, as part of his doctorate studies, the causes of livestock predation by snow leopards and find ways to minimise this. 

"It helped me discern the intricacies of the tangled issue of livestock, snow leopards and the bharal in the Himalayan regions of Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh as well as in Mongolia's Gobi desert,” says Kullu. 

“The findings were an eye opener. By trying to conserve wildlife outside protected areas (national parks and wildlife sanctuaries), we learnt that successful conservation would lead to increased conflict with people,” says the Bangalore resident, explaining the tangled web of livestock, bharal and snow leopards. “When wild herbivores increase in population, so does the snow leopard population. This means there will be more livestock predation by snow leopard. Hence, we as conservationists need to proactively engage with locals and take steps to mitigate this.” This is how NCF started to help local pastoral people in building predator-proof corrals. “We also helped set up livestock insurance programmes in 10 villages to compensate people for livestock killed by snow leopards. This was pioneered by NCF's Dr. Charudutt Mishra in 2002,” he adds.  

Perks & perils of the job

Any work that involves snow leopards, among the planet's most elusive wild cats, obviously involves spending a lot of time in snow-covered, high-altitude mountains where the air has reduced amounts of oxygen, making it difficult to breathe. “Working in the high altitudes is always challenging and one has to acclimatise well. On several occasions, I have had to use all my mountaineering experience during the field work. This adventure is part of the job and I enjoy it as much as anything else.” says Kullu, who learnt mountaineering at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering and the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute.

Given his choice of conservation in a difficult terrain, there are moments that Kullu says make all the hardships worth it. He says snow leopards are regal creatures who live a complex, beautiful life. “I want to study the snow leopards and unravel the secrets they may hold. They truly embody the 'ghost of the mountain' phrase,” says Kullu.

Know your conservationist

Name: Dr Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi
Involved in: Understanding himalayan ecology and snow leopard predation
Honours/awards: British Ecological Society's Southwood Prize (2013) for his research on snow leopards.
Hobbies: Mountaineering, long distance running, cycling, birdwatching and horse riding

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