Cats in the Clouds
19’ 41”
| Publicity: | A program to save snow leopards in the Indian Himalaya could be a template for saving big cats around the world. |
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| 20 percent of the world’s species will disappear by 2050, according to the UN Environment Program. The majestic snow leopard is on the critical list, but a successful conservation program is turning things around in northern India. |
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| Snow leopards roam the harsh mountain terrain of 12 countries, including China, Afghanistan, the “stans” of Central Asia, India and Russia. In many places they are hunted for their pelts, and for their body parts, for use in Chinese medicine. Farmers view them as dangerous pests who prey on their livestock. |
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| Eric Campbell treks with a pony train high into the Indian Himalaya to find out how locals are learning to love the leopards, rather than fear them. |
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| The high altitude Hemis National Park is known as “snow leopard heaven”. It’s a dramatic and remote landscape where people still largely survive off subsistence agriculture, as they have for centuries. There are no roads, and virtually no mod cons. Many villagers have just a few hours of solar power each day, and use animal dung to heat their homes and cook. |
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| Campbell meets local farmers who are being trained to use remote control cameras to track the leopards. They’re also given assistance to construct predator proof pens for their livestock. Women can now earn money by providing food and accommodation for trekkers. And the farmers are educating school children about biodiversity. |
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| Attitudes have changed, and snow leopards are now valued and protected. |
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| This is a rare piece of positive news in a world full of sad stories and gloomy forecasts, beautifully shot by the ABC’s New Delhi cameraman Wayne McAllister – a feast for the eyes, and for the soul. |
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| Further information |
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| Villagers harvesting | Music | 00:00 |
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| CAMPBELL: It is the harvest season in Ladakh, high up in the Trans-Himalaya. Villagers have spent the short summer growing just enough to survive winter. Life is once more guaranteed in a beautiful but harsh land. | 00:10 |
| Village prayer flags/ Mountains in b/g | But one inhabitant has been losing the battle for survival, not a person but an animal, known as the Queen of the mountains. | 00:40 |
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| Music | 00:51 |
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| CAMPBELL: Long before people came, the Himalaya was the domain of the snow leopard. It’s a shy creature that fears people, but it’s the ruler of the natural world. As the highest predator on the mountain food chain, it’s overseen a delicate balance of nature, in which people have co-existed for centuries. But thanks to the actions of Man, it’s dying out. | 00:55 |
| Mountainous terrain | Music | 01:20 |
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| CAMPBELL: Snow leopards roam across the mountains of 12 countries, from Afghanistan to Mongolia, | 01:37 |
| Snow leopard in zoo | but these days the only place you can be sure to see them is in a zoo. | 01:43 |
| Photos. Snow Leopard pelts | Music | 01:51 |
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| CAMPBELL: Life for their cousins in the wild has become precarious. Poachers hunt them for their pelts and for their body parts, to use in Chinese medicine. Climate change is destroying their habitat. | 01:54 |
| Mountainous terrain | The number of wild leopards is believed to have dropped to less than 7,000 and may even be as low as 4,000 -- too few to sustain the species across its vast domain. And those living among the leopards often see them as dangerous pests. | 02:13 |
| Ang village | Music | 02:36 |
| Lobzang Chuskit stacking barley | CAMPBELL: Lobzang Chuskit has lived in the Ladakhi village of Ang for all of her 67 years. | 02:48 |
| Campbell with Lobzang Chuskit to livestock pen | One morning last year she came to tend her animals and found a snow leopard instead. | 02:55 |
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| LOBZANG CHUSKIT: ‘Come, come, come! I closed it like this. [screams] The snow leopard was just next to the door. I was just shouting and walking around here calling for help.’ | 03:05 |
| Interior of livestock pen | CAMPBELL: A cub had jumped through an airhole into the livestock pen and killed all her animals. | 03:17 |
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| LOBZANG CHUSKIT: There’s a belief here that a snow leopard might attack a person after there’s been a kill, but this leopard didn’t do anything like that. It just looked at me like this -- and I just shut the door. | 03:25 |
| Lobzang Chuskit walks with husband to orchard | It was a big loss of course, but I can’t do anything about it. This is karma.’ | 03:57 |
| Sonam Nargil collects fruit | CAMPBELL: Her husband, Sonam Nargil, was less forgiving. | 04:09 |
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| SONAM NARGIL: ‘I got really angry, as it killed every animal in one go -- and I really wanted to kill the leopard. | 04:13 |
| Sonam Nargil | A lot of people came, and everyone had different views. Some said to kill it, and others said we’ll get punished.’ A lot of people came, and everyone had different views. Some said to kill it, and others said we’ll get punished.’ | 04:22 |
| Villagers looking at trapped Snow Leopard | CAMPBELL: In the end they decided to spare the cub because it was the start of a Buddhist festival. So they called the Department of Wildlife Protection which videoed the rescue. | 04:31 |
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| MAN: [at rescue] ‘Who dares have a look? …. | 04:44 |
| Rescue of Snow Leopard | CAMPBELL: Snow leopards have never been known to attack people. The cub was caught with surprising ease. | 04:54 |
| Wildlife Dept releases Snow Leopard | The villagers asked it be released as far away as possible. | 05:14 |
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| SONAM NARGIL: ‘Everyone was saying it’s better to take it away -- | 05:24 |
| Sonam Nargil | because if it’s released here, in the coming summer it will kill again.’ | 05:31 |
| Lobzang Chuskit tends animals | CAMPBELL: Their fear is understandable. Eight members of their extended family rely on the animals for food and for dung to heat their house. They’re all they have. | 05:38 |
| Lobzang Chuskit milks cow | LOBZANG CHUSKIT: ‘I love my animals but when I have all these problems rearing them, it’s hard. | 05:52 |
| Lobzang Chuskit | Sometimes I spin thread out of their wool and collect pashmina wool from the goats – and we get a small amount of money from these things. | 05:59 |
| Lobzang Chuskit watches animals | It’s very precious to me, as I don’t have any other income.’ | 06:17 |
| Ang village | CAMPBELL: Such conflicts are only increasing, as hungry leopards compete for scarce food. But here in Ladakh there’s now hope that the balance can be restored, that not only can the snow leopard be saved, but the people can begin to benefit from it. | 06:25 |
| Journey to Hemis | It’s a template that could be used to save big cats around the world and to see how it’s working, we’re about to take a journey deep into the realm of the snow leopard. | 06:40 |
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| Music | 06:53 |
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| CAMPBELL: It’s only in recent years that roads have been built to Ladakh’s remote villages. Even today, many can only be reached by foot. | 07:05 |
| Pony trek through mountain pass | As people have done for centuries, we packed our gear on ponies and headed up the mountain passes. Our destination was the place known as snow leopard heaven, a group of valleys and villages that is now part of the Hemis High Altitude National Park. | 07:19 |
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| CAMPBELL: ‘And how high are we going?’ | 07:38 |
| Campbell and Jigmet walk | JIGMET DADUL: ‘Ah, how high?’ CAMPBELL: ‘Yeah.’ JIGMET DADUL: ‘Rumbak is 4,050 metre.’ CAMPBELL: ‘Right. How long is the walk there?’ JIGMET DADUL: ‘From Jingchen to Rumbak is like three to four hour walk.’ CAMPBELL: ‘Okay.’ | 07:39 |
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| CAMPBELL: Our guide was Jigmet Dadul from the conservation group, the Snow Leopard Conservancy. | 07:56 |
| Jigmet examines rock for snow leopard | It wasn’t long before he found the first sign of one passing. JIGMET DADUL: ‘Yeah this one. So this is snow leopard scrapes. They’re just marking the territory.’ CAMPBELL: ‘You can tell that’s a snow leopard scrape?’ JIGMET DADUL: ‘Yeah, yeah it is a snow leopard…. and also this is the pee, you know? You can smell it.’ CAMPBELL: ‘Scent of a snow leopard.’ JIGMET DADUL: ‘Yes, it’s not fresh.’ CAMPBELL: ‘Certainly not!’ | 08:05 |
| Campbell and Jigmet walk | CAMPBELL: It’s hard to even sense their presence, especially in summer when they retreat to the snow line. | 08:26 |
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| CAMPBELL: ‘So how often can you see a snow leopard this time of year?’ JIGMET DADUL: ‘Actually in winter, if you spend like 20 days or 30 days then you can see like you know, two to three times. It depends actually - sometimes we can see like, often.’ CAMPBELL: ‘But this time of year you just see the traces, like the scrapings?’ JIGMET DADUL: ‘Yeah, yeah. Yes.’ | 08:33 |
| Rumbak village | CAMPBELL: Finally after a gruelling walk through the thin mountain air, we reach the village of Rumbak. | 08:50 |
| Campbell greets Tsering Angmo and others | Jigmet works with a local woman, Tsering Angmo to try to save the snow leopards that sometimes enter the village. | 09:01 |
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| TSERING ANGMO: ‘I’m working with the NGOs as the education coordinator.’ CAMPBELL: ‘Right, right so this is an experimental village for implementing the program to save the snow leopards?’ | 09:13 |
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| JIGMET DADUL: ‘Yes, yes.’ CAMPBELL: ‘And it’s going well?’ JIGMET DADUL: ‘It’s going well, yeah. | 09:22 |
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| We are really mostly focusing on our wildlife and flora and fauna through Angmo and Angmo’s team.’ | 09:26 |
| Hemis surrounds | Music | 09:35 |
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| CAMPBELL: The loss of a single farm animal can be disastrous. This is a barren, high altitude desert that gets less rain than the Sahara. That’s because it’s in the greatest rain shadow on earth, the Himalaya. Life here is uncertain for every living thing. People can only survive in small, green oases irrigated by melting snow and glaciers. But over the past decade, villagers have watched in alarm as this natural system has begun to collapse. | 09:47 |
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| TSERING ANGMO: ‘Climate is changing these days because of global warming. | 10:36 |
| Tsering Angmo | All the glaciers and melting and only a little bit of glaciers is left so people are getting problems with the water also. We are not getting the snow on time and in winter time also, the snow is not falling that much.’ | 10:40 |
| Mountain streams | CAMPBELL: The conservation project can’t change the weather, but it can ease their fears of losing livestock. | 10:58 |
| Animal pens | It helps them replace their traditional open pens which make their animals easy prey. | 11:05 |
| Campbell, Tsering and Jigmet in pen | JIGMET DADUL: ‘So Eric, this is a new corral.’ CAMPBELL: ‘Ah huh! Right. This keeps out the snow leopards?’ JIGMET DADUL: ‘Yeah there you see, you know, there’s a proper wooden poles and there’s a proper mesh wire and also like you know there’s a proper door. So this is done by the Wildlife Department.’ CAMPBELL: ‘Right. | 11:11 |
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| Incredibly simple idea, how come it’s never been done before?’ TSERING ANGMO: ‘Yeah they didn’t…’. CAMPBELL: ‘Didn’t think of it.’ JIGMET DADUL: ‘They just complaining, you know, and they didn’t think about that.’ | 11:27 |
| Goats in pen | CAMPBELL: The bigger challenge is helping them find other income so they don’t depend on these animals for survival. | 11:38 |
| Cows | For decades, the only way to make extra money was to leave the villages. The menfolk spent most of each year in towns or working as guides while the women run the farms. | 11:45 |
| Woman churning butter | Now, for the first time, women are making their own money at home. | 12:02 |
| Tsering Angmo with tourists at home stay | TSERING ANGMO: [To German tourists] ‘Here’s your home stay room. Put your bag inside this room and come for dinner inside the kitchen.’ GERMAN TOURIST: ‘Thank you very much. Beautiful room. It’s very, very beautiful.’ TSERING ANGMO: ‘Thankyou.’ | 12:08 |
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| CAMPBELL: They’ve discovered their simple houses can be just the experience jaded tourists want. In the past few years, home stays have started to vie with organised treks. The wildlife service licences women to offer accommodation and traditional food. Part of the attraction for visitors is being in the land of snow leopards. | 12:22 |
| Tourists have meal | TSERING ANGMO: ‘It’s good for Ladakh and especially for Rumbak. Many tourists are coming especially for the snow leopards so it’s good for them also.’ GERMAN TOURIST: ‘I think we’ll stay for awhile!’ | 12:50 |
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| CAMPBELL: Tsering Angmo has seen her neighbours’ outlook change since the project began. | 12:59 |
| Village farm | TSERING ANGMO: ‘When I was small, people thought snow leopards were bad for the villagers because snow leopards were killing a lot of domestic sheep and goats. But now people are changing and now people are not thinking we have to kill the snow leopards. | 13:06 |
| Tsering Angmo | Snow leopards are very endangered species so we have to protect this. Now people are thinking we have to protect the snow leopards.’ | 13:19 |
| Ladakhi village | Music | 13:27 |
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| CAMPBELL: And the nature of Ladakhi society has made that change easier. | 13:29 |
| Monks play horns | The snow leopards here don’t know it, but they’re fortunate to roam an area that is still devoutly Buddhist. People here share a spirituality that at its best elevates not just man, but every living thing. | 13:29 |
| Stupas | Music | 13:51 |
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| CAMPBELL: Most people in the mountains follow the religion of the neighbouring Tibet. In every village there’s a monaster or stupa engraved with Buddhist prayers. | 13:56 |
| Tsering ties scarf | It’s not just an institution, but a mysticism that influences every part of life. Every time Tsering Angmo leaves the village, she prays to a rock that symbolises their relationship with nature. | 14:08 |
| Sacred rock | TSERING ANGMO: It’s our village protector. In Buddhism we have many Gods. | 14:27 |
| Tsering | Ibex and blue sheep and all these things. So we are not killing the wildlife. | 14:31 |
| Ringing bell at school |
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| Classroom | CAMPBELL: To reinforce that belief she helps teachers show the value of conservation to Ladakh’s next generation. | 14:46 |
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| TSERING ANGMO: Some of you have already played this game. | 14:53 |
| Tsering plays game with students. Blindfolds boy. | Are your eyes closed? Can you see? I’ll tie tightly. | 14:56 |
| Game of pinning tail on snow leopard. | Is it in the right place? STUDENTS: No! | 15:09 |
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| TSERING ANGMO: Does the snow leopard tail look like this? STUDENTS: No! | 15:14 |
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| CAMPBELL: It’s a feel good project, but does it actually work? | 15:19 |
| Tsering addressing class | TSERING ANGMO: ‘Why should we save the snow leopard, and what’s their importance?’ | 15:22 |
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| BOY: ‘We should save the snow leopard. It’s like a necklace of Ladakh. A lot of tourists come to see the snow leopard. If there’s no snow leopard so many deer would come to graze on our land. So there are good and bad things. That’s all I’ve got to say.’ | 15:28 |
| Jigmet at camp | CAMPBELL: Back in the mountains, Jigmet has the hard task of measuring the program’s success | 16:02 |
| Super: Jigmet Dadul | JIGMET: Yes, it’s very hard to find because the snow leopard is very, totally camouflaged. | 16:10 |
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| So we are just looking the ridgeline, the skyline. They are very shy and they can easily, you know, hide somewhere. | 16:15 |
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| CAMPBELL: He spends weeks at a time roaming the park with his friend Khenrab Phuntsog from the Department of Wildlife Protection. They have an uncanny ability to spot wildlife that’s almost invisible to a novice like me. | 16:27 |
| Jigmet, Khenrab, Campbell spot wildlife | JIGMET DADUL: ‘Eric there’s a marmot.’ CAMPBELL: ‘There’s a marmot? Give me a look.’ | 16:44 |
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| JIGMET DADUL: ‘Yeah there’s a big marmot. Just standing on the ridge line. CAMPBELL: ‘Oh yeah! It’s a big one.’ JIGMET DADUL: ‘Yes it’s quite big.’ | 16:47 |
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| CAMPBELL: ‘Do snow leopards eat them?’ JIGMET DADUL: ‘Yes, yes, yes.’ CAMPBELL: ‘Very tasty snack.’ JIGMET DADUL: ‘Yes.’ | 16:56 |
| Marmots | Music | 17:01 |
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| CAMPBELL: Animals like marmots and urials are sparsely spread across a vast area. | 17:05 |
| Deer | Snow leopards can only thrive if their prey is plentiful, so the health of a snow leopard shows the state of the entire ecosystem. But it takes almost super human perseverance to find and follow them. | 17:14 |
| Jigmet with camera | Jigmet and Khenrab hide automatic cameras on paths where they found traces of snow leopards passing. | 17:42 |
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| JIGMET DADUL: ‘If some birds or anything, leopards or whatever come through this receiver and transmitter, the camera will automatically take the picture.’ | 17:51 |
| Photos. Snow leopards | Music | 17:59 |
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| CAMPBELL: These photos and studies of their tracks suggest the snow leopards of Hemis are safe at last. | 18:01 |
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| Music | 18:07 |
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| KHENRAB PHUNTSOG: ‘The people in the villages have very, very much agreed that they will conserve this nature. And they are now trying to | 18:20 |
| Khenrab. Super: | make it sort of happen that maybe in the coming ten years it will be an example for the whole world that okay, we are living with this nature.’ | 18:31 |
| Snow leopards | Music | 18:40 |
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| CAMPBELL: It’s only the beginning of a vast program needed to save snow leopards from extinction. Their survival will depend on such measures spreading to countries like China and the former Soviet states of Central Asia where economic collapse has driven many to poaching. | 18:55 |
| Hemis | Here in India at least, people are beginning to embrace this once feared predator as a living treasure. The hope is that the Queen of the Mountains can reign forever. | 19:16 |
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| Music | 19:30 |
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| Reporter: Eric Campbell Camera: Wayne McAllister Andrew Willessee (West Australia) Additional footage: Jammu & Kashmir Dept of Wildlife Editor: Simon Brynjolffssen Producer: Marianne Leitch | 19:41 |