Voices from the Roof of the Word, ABD Media, in association with The Aga Khan University, Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, Aga Khan Foundation and University of Central Asia

Snow Leopards are one of the most elusive wild cats. In the frigid and rugged Karakoram mountains of northern Pakistan, they lead a solitary life, mostly unknown to science. Each snow leopard requires a home range of up to 1600 square kilometers of wilderness to survive. Other wildlife in the region such as golden eagles, vultures, foxes, and wolves depend on this apex predator’s kills. Hussain Ali Khan has devoted his life to protecting these cats and has an emotional attachment to them, which started after he tracked a snow leopard family. Now due to climate change and human encroachment, he has seen the snow leopard’s habitat degrading quickly. The depletion of natural prey means snow leopards increasingly attack domestic livestock leading to animosity between the cats and shepherds. We follow a herder who has lost more than a hundred animals to snow leopard attacks and we examine some of the solutions to human-wildlife conflict put in place by Gilgit Baltistan’s Wildlife Department.