Leh / Jammu: Snow Leopard has been declared a country animal from the Ladakh Union region while the black-necked crane is named the state bird.
Notifications issued on Tuesday by Ladakh’s main secretary for the Department of Forest, Ecology and the Environment, Pawan Kotwal, confirmed the development.
In India, East Ladakh is a known breeding place for black-necked cranes outside China.
Snow leopards, meanwhile, found in J & K, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh and their population estimates in this country are between 450-500.
While the black-necked crane (Grus Nicricollis) was evaluated as “almost threatened” on the IUCN Red list of threatened species, Snow Leopard (Panther UNICA) was registered as “vulnerable”.
Before reorganizing the country Yammu and Kashmir who used to be UTS from J & K and Ladakh in August 2019, black-necked cranes and Kashmir Stag (Hangul) were birds and country animals.
Because the Kashmir deer was not found in Ladakh, it was necessary to choose new animals and birds, clarified notifications.