Ladakh adopts state animal and bird

Ladakh adopts state animal and bird

Subject – Environment

Context – Ladakh on Wednesday adopted two endangered species, snow leopard and black-necked crane, as the State animal and the State bird, two years after it was carved out as a separate Union Territory (UT) from the erstwhile State of J&K.

Concept –

• Ladakh on Wednesday adopted two endangered species, snow leopard and black-necked crane, as the State animal and the State bird, two years after it was carved out as a separate Union Territory (UT) from the erstwhile State of J&K.

Black-Necked Crane

• The Black-necked Crane (Grus nigricollis) is a medium-sized crane in Asia that breeds on the Tibetan Plateau and remote parts of India and Bhutan.
• The bird is revered by the community of Monpas(major Buddhist ethnic group of Arunachal Pradesh) as an embodiment of the sixth Dalai Lama (Tsangyang Gyatso).
• Black-necked cranes are only found in Ladakh’s Changthang region.
• They are described as majestic birds — around 139 cm long with a 235 cm wingspan and weighing 5-6 kg.
• The bird’ sighting is considered auspicious in Ladakh.
• Both the sexes are almost of the same size but male is slightly bigger than female.
• IUCN Red List: Near Threatened
• CITES: Appendix I
• Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule I

Snow leopard

• The snow leopard (Panthera uncia), also known as the ounce, is a felid in the genus Panthera native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia.
• It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because the global population is estimated to number fewer than 10,000 mature individuals and is expected to decline about 10% by 2040.
• It is threatened by poaching and habitat destruction following infrastructural developments.
• It inhabits alpine and subalpine zones at elevations from 3,000 to 4,500 m (9,800 to 14,800 ft), ranging from eastern Afghanistan, the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau, to southern Siberia, Mongolia and western China.
• In the northern part of its range, it also lives at lower elevations.
• 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.
• 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.