Ladakh is a home for more than 30 species of mammals, of which three are felids:

Snow leopard, lynx and Pallas’s cat.Among these three cats, Pallas’cat or manul (Otocolobus manul) is the smallest one that resides in the cold deserts of Ladakh.

  • It is being named as Otocolobus, a Greek word meaning ‘ugly-eared’. Small in size, furry, with round pinhole eyes, the black marks on the cheeks.
  • The status and distribution of this species remains scanty and unknown within the Indian Trans-Himalayan limits.
  • Apart from Ladakhand Sikkim,it has been found in the Nelong valley of Uttarakhandby a joint team of the Wildlife Institute of India and the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem in 2019.
  • In India, Ladakh seems to have a wide presence of Pallas’s cat, of which, Hanle — an overly exploited site by tourists — is one of the best places to get a sneak peek of this fabulous cat.
  • Ladakh, being a Buddhist-dominated area, has a sense of compassion towards such creatures. Changpas, the local pastoralist people of Changthang, never harm this cat.
  • One of the immediate threats to Pallas’s cat is the presence of free-ranging dogs and expanding human activities like military presence, tourism and related developmental activities in the Changthang region. The problems are interlinked.
  • For instance, the construction of broader asphalt roads for military and tourist facilities near wetland habitats have invited problems of pollution, degradation of pristine patches and habitat fragmentation.
  • Dogs appear as the most dominating carnivore species in the region.
  • The Pallas’s Cat Conservation Action Plan Meeting in 2019 recommended various guidelines and a road map. Trans-boundary management and collaborations of stakeholders will contribute to secure its existence in the Indian Himalayas.

FACTS

  • The Pallas's cat (Otocolobus manul), also called manul.
  • It is a small wild cat with a broad, but fragmented distribution in the grasslands and montane steppes of Central Asia.
  • It is negatively affected by habitat degradation, prey base decline and hunting, and has therefore been classified as Near Threatenedon the IUCN Red List since 2002.
  • The Pallas's cat was first described in 1776 by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas.
  • The Pallas's cat is listed in CITES Appendix II.
  • Hunting is prohibited in all range countries except Mongolia, where the species has no legal protection despite being classified as Near Threatened in the country.
  • Since 2009, it is legally protected in Afghanistan, where all hunting and trade in its parts is banned