Ladakh’s plan to save its wolves

Ladakh’s plan to save its wolves

Subject: Environment

Section: Biodiversity

Context: Over the past couple of years, village communities in Ladakh have been building Stupas next to traditional wolf traps, committing to stop killing wolves.

Concept:

• Shangdong are traditional trapping pits with inverted funnel-shaped stone walls, usually built near villages or herder camps. Typically, a live domestic animal is placed in the pit to attract the wolves. Once the wolves jump into the pit, the walls prevent them from escaping. The trapped wolves are usually stoned to death.
• Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF) provided support to neutralisation of the Shandong while preserving their structure, and assisted the communities to build Stupas.

About Wolves:

• Out of 32 sub-species of wolves that are recognised, two are believed to inhabit the Indian subcontinent: the Tibetan Wolf, whose range extends from trans-Himalaya into Tibet and China, and the Indian wolf that ranges over peninsular India (Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh)
• Indian wolf, which we know numbers around 3,000, while Tibetan wolf is estimated of around 500
• Both sub-species are critically endangered
• Placed under Schedule I animal in the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
• There are no conservation projects launched by the Government for wolves.