Ladakh Records 4,050 Livestock Kills in Three Years

SRINAGAR: Ladakh has reported more than 4,000 livestock deaths from wild animal attacks over the past three years, with snow leopards and wild yaks among the species involved, but no human fatalities, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has told Parliament.

Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State Kirti Vardhan Singh said the Union Territory Administration of Ladakh recorded 424 livestock attack cases in 2022–23, 402 in 2023–24 and 447 in 2024–25, resulting in 1,577, 1,093 and 1,380 livestock kills respectively.

The administration has notified ex gratia compensation schemes for livestock loss, as well as human death or injury caused by wildlife. However, there is no scheme for crop damage. The minister said the Department of Wildlife Protection in Ladakh is instead providing chain-link fencing to protect farmlands in vulnerable areas, especially near Protected Areas.

Ladakh has three designated Protected Areas, the High Altitude Cold Desert (Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary), the Karakoram (Nubra-Shyok) Wildlife Sanctuary, and the Hemis High Altitude National Park. No formal wildlife corridors have been declared, but the ministry said natural movement routes exist across the high-altitude terrain, connecting these reserves to adjoining habitats and even transboundary regions, used by species such as the snow leopard, Tibetan antelope (chiru) and wild yak.

Rescue and rehabilitation centres are already operating in Leh and Kargil, providing treatment for injured wild animals before releasing them back into their habitats. The minister said no proposal to establish a dedicated wildlife research and rehabilitation centre in Ladakh has been received by the ministry so far.