'Snow leopard habitats at risk of vanishing'

Islamabad: Snow leopard habitats in Pakistan’s north are at a serious risk of vanishing as glaciers are rapidly melting because of global warming-induced climate change impacts said an official Ministry of Climate Change on Thursday.

Talking to APP, he said that that an amount of $4.5 million ave been approved for a multi-year snow leopard protection and the programme launched in Gilgit-Baltistan region.

He said snow leopard range in Pakistan spreads across 80,000 square kilometres in the Hindu Kush, Pamir, Karakoram and Himalayan Mountain Ranges of northern Pakistan.

An estimated 200-420 snow leopards exist in Pakistan’s northern mountains across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).