M7

National Snow Leopard Survey Report (NSLS) 2022-2023 Background Snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is one of the apex predator of the alpine region, globally threatened due to habitat loss and fragmentation, prey depletion, human-wildlife conflict due to livestock predation, illegal poaching, impact of climate change and anthropogenic disturbances. The global snow leopard population size is estimated to be between 3,920 to 7,500 individuals, with approximately 2,710 to 3,386 of them being adults (McCarthy and Chapron 2003; Janecka et al. 2008;