India needs to secure Pallas' cats

The land of high passes, cliff-nested monasteries, bare, snowy mountains, and serene lakes are scenes a layperson will visualise upon hearing the word "Ladakh".

But this cold desert is way classier than just a mere picturesque landscape. Starting from sure-footed snow leopard to prancing black-necked crane, this land harbours many threatened species which are empirical to the Trans-Himalaya.

Ladakh is a haven 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.

Despite being named as Otocolobus, a Greek word meaning 'ugly-eared', I found it to be one of the cutest cats I have ever encountered in the wild. Small in size, furry, with round pinhole eyes, the black marks on the cheeks enhances its cuteness manifold.

The status and distribution of this species remains scanty and unknown within the Indian Trans-Himalayan limits. Apart from Ladakh and Sikkim, a recent record of manul has been found in the Nelong valley of Uttarakhand by a joint team of the Wildlife Institute of India and the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem in 2019.

No presence has been recorded from Spiti, the Trans-Himalayan area in Himachal Pradesh. However, Spiti has been suspected to be one of the cat's suitable habitats by experts. Besides some opportunistic sighting records, nothing much has been revealed.

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.

My association with Pallas's cat started somewhere around the summer of 2013, during my first visit to Ladakh.

In 2013, the quest of studying black-necked cranes rewarded me with my first glance of manul in the Lal Pahari area of the Changthang plateau. During morning hours, I encountered my first two Pallas's cat individuals, playing on the bank of the Hanle river (a tributary of the Indus).

However, before I could prepare my camera to capture them, both escaped into a pile of stones nearby, besides a Caragana bush patch. I approached the bushes slowly and lay down stock-still to get more glimpses of these adorable cats.

After a few minutes, one peeped out from the stone crevices and showed its beautiful face. Those black marks on the cheeks and round sparkling eyes were stunning. Our hide-and-seek went on for a few more minutes and then I left that delightful creature alone.

My second Pallas's cat sighting happened on a chilly morning of May 2015. I encountered a manul in its happy hunting ground, looking for its breakfast, perhaps a pika or a vole in the burrows near the Indus riverbed.

Soon, our presence alerted it. Upon realising our presence, the Pallas's cat immediately escaped to a nearby barren hill. While running away from us, it turned its head towards us and stared at us repeatedly before vanishing over the hilltop.

I had another quick glance at the Pallas's cat during field work in August 2016 at the Tso Kar basin, near a ruined rebo (dwelling) on the western shoreline of the Statsapuk Lake. While counting breeding water birds, I witnessed a manul escaping towards rock crevices from a wet meadow.

Perhaps tall grass species like Poa tibitica (more than 30 centimetres in height) in the marshy meadow provided perfect hide outs to Pallas's cat for hunting pikas and voles in the area. This basin is comprised of two exquisite lakes: the larger one, Tso Kar, is brackish while the smaller one, Statsapuk, is freshwater.

Statsapuk provides safe refuge to more than 30 water bird species, including black-necked cranes. The entire Tsokar basin is the habitat of the endangered Tibetan argali or wild sheep. Apart from Pallas's cat, wolves, foxes and free-ranging dogs are the major carnivores in this landscape.

The encounter with Pallas's cat on different locations in Changthang is a positive sign of its wide occurrence in the landscape and indicates that there is a viable population. However, the enigma of their distribution, range, behaviour and ecology can only be solved by a systematic study.

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, even though they get continuous glimpses of it while grazing their livestock.

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.

Over the years, ample human subsidy and feralisation has been attributed to the increased population of dogs in Ladakh. Hence, large packs of dogs can be found in and around human habitations.

I have witnessed dogs sniffing around Pallas's cat habitats in the Hanle basin. However, I have never encountered any unfortunate incidents between dogs and Pallas's cat unlike foxes, black-necked cranes and even wolves.

Dogs appear as the most dominating carnivore species in the region as I witnessed them with large groups of 10-20 individuals, which often chase relatively smaller wolf packs comprised of four-five individuals.

Despite having countless issues, Ladakh still has a wide occurrence of Pallas' cat in parts of the Changthang plateau. The unknown status and a handful of records in India are a great opportunity to reveal the facts about this animal through systematic assessment of its status and distribution.

Studies pertaining to its behaviour and conservation challenges are also required. The Pallas's Cat Conservation Action Plan Meeting in 2019, which I was also a part of, recommended various guidelines and a road map.

Trans-boundary management and collaborations of stakeholders will contribute to secure its existence in the Indian Himalayas.

(Courtesy: Down To Earth)