Wildlife authorities in Jammu and Kashmir have concluded the population census of the union territory’s royal stag – Hangul – a critically endangered species of red deer found only in the Valley, with hopes of a further increase in the animal’s numbers.
The activity held from March 18 to 22 inside Dachigam National Park and its outskirts involved around 400 wildlife and forest experts, field staff, academics and scholars from educational institutions, including SKUAST-Kashmir, University of Kashmir, Amar Singh College Srinagar, Women’s College MA Road, Srinagar, Cluster University, as well as representatives from NGOs . Their observations will now be compiled in coming days to arrive at a definitive number.
“The exercise was completed yesterday and now we are waiting for analysis. Around 400 people from the department, from universities and colleges of the valley were involved in the census,” said Parvez Ahmad Wani, wildlife warden central Kashmir.
The biennial census was last conducted in 2023 when the elusive animal had shown a marginal increase to arrive at a population number of 289. Before the 1990s, hundreds of such animals would roam the valley’s forests.
The last viable population of Hangul (Cervus hanglu hanglu) in the Indian sub-continent now exists only in protected Dachigam National Park, a vast mountainous sanctuary (141 sq km) on the outskirts of Srinagar, where Hangul grazed in hordes before the start of militancy in 1989. Lately there have been a few sightings in connected areas outside the park in south Kashmir but their number is very negligible.
The specie has been placed in “critically endangered” category by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and is the only survivor of the red deer group in the Indian sub-continent. A population census is conducted every two years. In 2023, the population of the animal had slightly improved to 289 from 261 in 2021. In 2019, the number was 237 up from 214 in 2017.
Wani said that the census was conducted in the whole landscape of Hangul not just Dachigam but from Thajiwas to Wavlath, then Kangan, Tral and Dachigam. “This is the landscape of Hangul,” he said.
The people conducting the census are divided into groups and each track is assigned to one group of four to five people with equipment such as GPS, binoculars, range finder and data sheets. They record every physical sighting, sighting of pelt or other impressions on the basis of which they will be able to assess the number.
Poached for its meat, antlers and skin, the deer’s population dropped below 200 in the early 1990s from 800-900 in 1988 after insurgency paralysed the state administration. It had a thriving population of 3,000-5,000 in the 1900s.
However, the number of Hangul stabilised after poachers were forced out when militancy reached its peak in the mid-1990s and militants and the army battled each other deep in the forests, the natural abode of the shy animal.
“Owing to the conservation efforts, the numbers are increasing and our expectation this year is also good,” said Wani.
Around three-four decades ago, Hangul thrived on a massive landscape from Bandipora in north to Tulail, Shopian in south through the central Kashmir’s Dachigam.
Wani said that this year more forest corridors were included in the census. “We added more areas this year like corridors- the forest areas falling in between protected areas. Two major corridors were included one from Dachigam side and another from Tral in south Kashmir- the corridor between Tral wildlife sanctuary and Aru wildlife sanctuary,” he said.