The Fall of the Water

24

Table 3: Estimated numbers of snow leopards left in the wild.

Estimated habitat (km 2 )

Estimated population (1996)

Country

unknown 100 2,000 - 2,500 500 1,000 300 - 500 300 - 420 120 100 - 120 650 < 200 - 300 <50

Afghanistan Bhutan China India Mongolia Nepal Pakistan Russia Kazakhstan Kyrgyz Republic Tajikistan Uzbekistan

80,000 10,000 400,000 95,000 130,000 30,000 80,000 130,000 71,000 126,000

78,000 14,000

and Han migrants, as well as previously by Chinese soldiers, primarily because of the value of their fine wool, known as shahtoosh. Shahtoosh is smuggled from China to India for manufacturing in Jammu and Kashmir state. Smuggling routes follow the high mountain passes between Tibet and India, or transit through Nepal. This also applies to poaching of the Snow leopard. Chiru, which are under the protection of the Convention on International Trade in Endan- gered Species, numbered under 75,000 at the end of the 1990’s, down from over a million a century ago. They were being killed at a rate of 20,000 per year, mainly due to the large demand for shahtoosh shawls in Western markets since the 1980s.

protected areas hopefully can add help to protect this species, although it’s current future must be deemed highly uncertain unless directly targeted programmes to protect it are implemented and enforced. Chiru ( Pantholops hodgsoni ) The Chiru or Tibetan antelope has witnessed a decline similar to that of the American buffalo in the 1840- 50’s. Chiru favour alpine steppe, alpine meadow and desert steppe habitats. The largest remaining Tibetan antelope populations survive in the Chang Tang re- gion of northwest Tibet, southern Xinjiang, and in southwestern Qinghai (Schaller, 1998). The Chiru has been subjected to organized poaching mainly by Hui