Numbers of the Kashmir markhor, a wild goat of the north Kashmir mountains, have risen about 71 per cent since 2005, although the latest count adds only a handful of animals to the 2023 figure, which keeps the focus on grazing pressure in its habitat.
Wildlife Week
An ancient shadow-puppet tradition that usually retells the epics has been handed a fish as its hero, in an effort to get schoolchildren thinking about how to protect the largest fish on Earth.
Twenty-four people, from Forest Department staff and local fishers to the Teesta Barrage gateman, received Gaja Mitra Awards in Siliguri on 7 October for helping rescue an elephant calf swept away by the Teesta River.
India’s first high-altitude wildlife safari has begun in Ladakh, with the Union Territory’s Lieutenant Governor flagging off six vehicles on Wednesday for trips built around snow leopards.
A three-year-old tigress from Bihar’s Valmiki Tiger Reserve is due to be released into West Bengal’s Buxa Tiger Reserve on Friday morning, in what is the state’s first tiger reintroduction and an attempt to rebuild a population in a forest that currently has no tigers.
Corbett Tiger Reserve has published a programme for Wildlife Week running from 1 to 7 October, with a cyclothon, school debates on corridors and eco-tourism, clean-up drives and panel discussions across Ramnagar, Kalagarh and Kotdwar.