Captive breeding to save Kashmir's rare red deer

Sat May 10, 6:42 AM ET

SRINAGAR, India (AFP) - Kashmir's endangered red deer faces extinction without a captive breeding programme that will start this summer in the scenic Himalayan region, Indian wildlife officials said.

The antlered deer, known as the hangul, were once a major attraction in the mountain-ringed forests of Dachigam near Srinagar, summer capital of Kashmir and the focus of an 18-year old insurrection against Indian rule.

"The population of hangul as per the latest census has come down from 228 to 160 in the past four years," Kashmir's wildlife warden Rashid Naqash told AFP Friday.

The "cervus elaphus hanglu" is the only surviving sub-species of the red deer family in the world, he said.

Some 5,000 of the animals, also known as the Kashmir stag, roamed the region in the late 1940s.

"It is a gradual decline but we are concerned and worried," Naqash said after the release of a new state wildlife census.

He said his department had begun long-term measures to try to save what he called "the pride of Kashmir."

The wildlife department was "all set to go for captive breeding within a month or two" to save the deer, Naqash said. "By this, we will be able to prevent the animals' extinction."

The deer will be bred at the Shikargah conservation reserve in Tral, 40 kilometres (28 miles) south of Srinagar.

"The main threat to hangul is from predators, leopards in particular," said Naqash, noting that excessive livestock grazing, habitat degradation and forest fires also stress the population.

A 10-year-old hunting ban and the insurgency have led to a boom in the populations of animals such as leopards and bears.

A crackdown on gun ownership at the start of the rebellion, and the risk of being caught in the cross-fire between militants and troops, have largely kept poachers out of the forests in the Himalayan region.

The latest census was conducted in Dachigam and adjoining areas during the first week of March by state wildlife officials and experts from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).

The WII monitors the hangul, records group numbers as well as the age and sex of the deer, and threats to fawning ground.