Eastern Himalayas Stories

  • Snow leopard numbers jump in Bhutan

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2024
    Finding a snow leopard is an unusually difficult feat. With dappled gray-white fur, the extremely furtive big cats are well-camouflaged in their rocky and harsh Himalayan habitat.
    Snow leopard walking toward camera
  • India completes its first-ever snow leopard population survey

    February 05, 2024

    Skilled scientists in India completed the first-ever rigorous examination of the country’s snow leopard population, estimating that 718 of these iconic big cats live within the country’s borders.

    A snow leopard captured by camera trap walks in front of a rock outcropping
  • Bhutan’s snow leopard population increases by almost 40% in only six years

    October 23, 2023

    Bhutan’s snow leopard population increased by 39.5% since 2016, according to a new survey implemented by the Royal Government of Bhutan’s Department of Forests and Park Services with support from WWF-Bhutan and partners. Findings from over 10,000 camera trap images confirmed the presence of 134 snow leopards in the country, an impressive jump from the baseline of 96 snow leopards in 2016.

    A snow leopard walks across a high ridge with mountains and a bright blue sky in the background
  • WWF’s Dechen Dorji on keeping the spirit of the Year of the Tiger close to our hearts

    February 21, 2023

    Tigers have faced unprecedented threats for many years, but conservation efforts over the past decade have shown that recovering tigers from the brink of extinction is possible when we transcend boundaries and work together.

    Dechen Dorji stands in front of tall snowy peaks on a sunny day
  • Nepal nearly triples its wild tiger population

    July 29, 2022

    Nepal is now the second country to double its wild tiger population. It’s an incredible achievement and testament to the conservation efforts of the government, partners, and local communities over the last 12 years.

    Two young tigers run alongside a riverbank in Nepal
  • How gender equality impacts conservation

    March 08, 2022

    Research from the CARE-WWF Alliance shows that empowering women can reduce environmental damage, especially when women are engaged in natural resource management and conservation leadership positions.

    Women carry baskets and wear colorful clothes as they walk down a path
  • Eight species making a comeback

    March 03, 2022

    Recovering species is essential for effective wildlife conservation and critical to the work WWF does around the world. Here are just a few of our favorite, recent recovery stories.

    Banke Nepal camera trap
  • How scientists count tigers in India

    January 27, 2022

    From dense jungles to the Himalayas, tigers are an elusive species—hard to find and hard to count. But, thanks to the use of camera traps, the movements and behaviors of tigers are now less of a mystery.

    A tiger walks across leaves in the jungle in India
  • What does a snow leopard researcher do?

    November 22, 2021

    Samundra Subba is a research officer at WWF Nepal with a focus on large carnivores—primarily tigers and snow leopards. He’s joined six satellite telemetry expeditions of snow leopards. This is his journey.

    A snow leopard with a GPS collar gazes off into the distance in the snow
  • Two snow leopards successfully collared in Nepal

    June 15, 2021

    Scientists successfully collared two snow leopards in Western Nepal—a feat that will help researchers learn more about this elusive and vulnerable species. The satellite GPS collaring of these big cats brings Nepal’s tally of collared snow leopards to eight.

    A snow leopard looks to the right wearing a satellite collar and sitting on a rocky slope
  • More than 70% of snow leopard habitat remains unexplored

    May 17, 2021

    Snow leopards live in some of the most rugged landscapes in Asia’s high mountains, which makes it incredibly difficult to study these rare and elusive big cats. A large majority of snow leopard habitat remains under-researched, according to the first-ever systematic review of snow leopard research conducted to date.

    A snow leopard lying down in the snow looks directly at the camera
  • A landmark snow leopard collaring in Nepal

    May 21, 2020

    Elusive and solitary nature, snow leopards are rarely spotted and even less frequently studied within their rugged and harsh habitat. However last November, two snow leopards were captured, fitted with satellite-GPS collars, and successfully released back into their rocky homeland in Western Nepal. The two male snow leopards were the first since the 1980s to be fitted with collars within Shey Phoksundo National Park in Western Nepal.

    Collared snow leopard on rocky terrain in high mountains of Western Nepal
  • Nine wins for tigers in the last nine years

    November 27, 2019

    Established in 2010 and dubbed Tx2, it is arguably the most ambitious effort ever undertaken to recover an endangered species. Today, the overall tiger population decline has begun to reverse, with better data and improved surveys indicating there are likely now close to 4,000 tigers roaming free across the range states.Here are the Tx2’s top nine achievements to date.

    Tiger
  • Changing people and landscapes: Farida's story

    May 24, 2017

    In Kyrgyzstan, community based conservation activities led by Farida Balbakova have paved the way for an integrated, climate-smart landscape management plan to protect the snow leopard.

    Farida Balbakova
  • Nepal successfully collars four snow leopards in four years

    May 17, 2017

    A snow leopard was successfully collared in Kangchenjunga Conservation Area on May 8, 2017 making it the fourth one to be collared in Nepal’s eastern snow leopard conservation complex.

    Collared snow leopard, Yalung.
  • Helping people and wildlife thrive together

    May 12, 2017

    Human-wildlife conflict is a major issue for many poor people who live near forests in rural areas of Nepal. That’s one of the reasons why WWF and other partners in conservation launched the Hariyo Ban (Green Forest) program to find lasting solutions that protect people’s lives, livestock and crops and prevent the retaliatory killing of wildlife. 

    Newly installed fence in the Karnali corridor
  • In Nepal, cook stoves improve lives and help the environment

    May 12, 2017

    WWF and partners have launched a program to reduce pressure on forests and improve the lives of women and marginalized people through projects such as providing improved cook stoves that burn firewood more efficiently.

    A woman cooking with a metallic improved cook stove.
  • Diane Moxness on community and adventure in the Himalayas

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2017
    WWF National Council member Diane Moxness is always up for adventure. She and her husband spent time in Nepal forging a vision for conservation that embraces local as well as global action.
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  • Adapting to Climate Change In Nepal

    WWF Magazine: Spring 2017
    In one of the most climate-vulnerable countries on Earth, an unprecedented development project is building a model for adapting to climate change on a massive scale—working one village at a time.
    Harveting crops
  • Modeling Resilience

    WWF Magazine: Spring 2017
    More than 4 million people call Nepal’s Gandaki River Basin home.
    Gandaki River Basin, Nepal
  • Where do snow leopards live? And nine other snow leopard facts

    Snow leopards scale the great, steep slopes of mountains in Central Asia with ease, blending into the landscape. But these endangered cats face many threats including habitat loss, reduced prey and retaliatory killings. WWF works to reduce human-leopard conflict and protect the fragile snow leopard habitat.

    Snow Leopard
  • Children help secure a future for snow leopards in Mongolia

    August 11, 2016

    Three years ago, researchers from WWF-Mongolia set up camera traps to photograph snow leopards in and around Khovd Aimag’s Jargalant Khairkhan Mountain, located in western Mongolia’s Altai Mountains, to determine the elusive cat’s population size and distribution.

    Student leaders pose in front of sculpture
  • The Earth Has a Third Pole—And Millions of People Use Its Water

    June 04, 2015

    Overlapping heavily with snow leopard habitat, the Third Pole encompasses the snow-covered mountains surrounding the Tibetan Plateau. The Pole’s thousands of glaciers and regular snow melt form the headwaters for 10 of Asia’s biggest rivers, which bring drinking water, power and irrigation directly to 210 million people, while these river basins indirectly support more than 1.3 billion people.

    lake and mountains in asia
  • Life in Nepal

    WWF Magazine: Winter 2014
    How a tiny, mountainous country became one of the world's biggest conservation successes for wildlife—and for rural communities with pressing health needs.
    Woman in flooded field