Chapter 37 - South Asia: Nepal

Abstract

Peter Matthiessen’s classic 1978 book The Snow Leopard (Matthiessen P., 1978. The Snow Leopard. Viking Press, New York) catapulted this majestic cat to the general public’s attention and established Nepal as the land of snow leopard. Thinly spread across the most rugged landscapes in the northern districts of the country, along the Chinese and Indian borders, snow leopards are protected in Nepal under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act of 1973. The 1970s and 1980s witnessed major snow leopard research that was accompanied by the establishment of protected areas across the country and culminated in the 1990s with the dawn of social conservation. With the endorsement of Snow Leopard Action Plan in 2005 and its subsequent revision in 2012, and with several snow leopard conservation projects ongoing at local level, Nepal has established a history of snow leopard conservation.