Expansion of range and habitat of Hangul (Kashmiri stag) to alpine meadows in the upper Dachigam National Park here is believed to recuperate ideal summer habitat for stag, which will lead to its long-term conservation and survival. The habitat used by Hangul in the past, presently finds its stray presence in those places.
With cases of bears straying out of their habitat and attacking people rising, mostly in the outlying areas close to forests, wildlife officials have started a pilot project of putting GPS collars around the necks of Himalayan black bears in a bid to study their movement and behavioural pattern.
In the first such move in India, the J-K Wildlife Department has put satellite collars on black bears to study their ecological behaviour and to help prevent the man-animal conflict from escalating.
The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of the litter chemistry of Ulmus villosa Brandis grown in the Dachigam National Park Srinagar J & K on their decomposition rates. Freshly fallen litter from the species were analyzed for N. Litter bag technique was used to determine their mass loss in the field for 1 year at monthly intervals.
Here the researchers present an observation on the rutting behaviour of the nationally threatened population of Red Deer in Kashmir, Cervus elaphus hanglu, commonly known as Hangul, in the Dachigam National Park (DNP).
Stepping in to save Kashmir's endangered red deer -hanguls - from extinction, the Jammu and Kashmir government has launched a Rs 8.80 crore project under which carnivore proof enclosures will be set up for captive breeding of fawns.
The statistics are grim. The Kashmir hangul, the only surviving subspecies of the red deer family, is slowly becoming extinct. In fact, as per the latest census report released in March, its population has come down from 228 to 160 in the last four years. This, when in the late 1940s, some 5,000 hangul, also known as Kashmir stag, roamed the Himalayan region.
The residents of Khrew and Khanmoh in Pampore Tehsil have expressed serious concern over the increasing number of cement manufacturing factories, which they said have become major source of pollution in the area. Demanding that the factories should either be closed down or shifted to some uninhabited areas, the residents maintained that cement plants continue to affect the growth and production of saffron fields and other vegetations badly.
