The high altitude region of the Indian Himalaya (including the Trans-Himalaya) is home to the snow leopard Uncia uncia the elusive and magnificent big cat that symbolises the desolate, mountain landscapes. This globally threatened predator shares its rugged, climatically challenging and remote home with a unique wildlife assemblage of global importance that includes populations of many other threatened species such as the Black-necked Crane Grus nigricollis, two species of bears Ursus spp., Red Panda Ailurus fulgens, mountain ungulates such as the Wild Yak Bos grunniens, Chiru or Tibetan Antelope Pantholops hodgsoni, Gowa or Tibetan Gazelle Procapra picticaudata, Tibetan Argali Ovis ammon, Ladakh Urial Ovis vignei, Himalayan Musk Deer Moschus chrysogaster, three species of the goat-antelope Goral Nemorhaedus spp., Serow N. sumatraensis and Takin Budorcas taxicolor, to name a few. The traditional agro-pastoral communities and their domestic livestock also share this home of threatened and unique high altitude wildlife. Like every other human society that has been transformed through the twin agents of technology and markets, these once isolated, remote and near-subsistence societies are also in a socio-economic transition from their earlier rather benign existence.
