Researchers begin genetic study to find ways to protect, increase population of Kashmir Stag
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Researchers begin genetic study to find ways to protect, increase population of Kashmir Stag

Post by on Sunday, August 21, 2022

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A team of researchers of Department of Wildlife Protection has started a comprehensive genetic study to identify and find better ways to protect and increase the population of endangered Hangul (Kashmir Stag), a subspecies of Central Asian red deer.
Regional Wildlife Warden, Rashid Naqash told Rising Kashmir that for the conservation and protection of Hangul, the department has started genetic research.
“Genetic study is a long format approach in which the male and female species of Hangul would be identified with the help of coding," he said.
Naqash said, besides genetic studies, the department had worked on different parameters for the conservation and protection of Hangul.
“We have put in a lot of effort which led to an increase in the Hangul population from 186 in 2015 to 263 in 2021," he said.
He said the critically endangered Hangul was on the verge of extinction. He listed measures adopted by the Department of Wildlife Protection for increasing the Hangul population
“Providing enough landscape, setting up two Hangul breeding centres in Shikargah area of Tral in Pulwama and Kangan districts and monitoring the movement of Hangul species, and other steps by the department have proved helpful for the population of Hangul," he said.
To conserve the ‘Hangul’, the only surviving species of the red deer family in Kashmir, the two breeding centres were set up to increase the breed of the animal.
The conservation breeding centres were opened at Shikargah Tral, Pulwama District and Kangan under the 'Species Recovery Programme. The programme was first announced in 2008, with a financial assistance of Rs 22 crores from the National Zoo Authority of India to build the centre.
The Hangul is considered equally significant to Jammu & Kashmir as the Tiger is to the whole of India. It is the only Asiatic survivor or sub-species of the European red deer. But the Kashmir Stag’s decreasing population remained a big concern.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red Data Book — which contains lists of species at risk of extinction — has declared the Hangul as one of three species that were critically endangered in Jammu and Kashmir. The other two are the Markhor — the world’s largest species of wild goat found in Kashmir and several regions of central Asia — and the Tibetan antelope or ‘Chiru’, found mostly in the mountainous regions of Mongolia and the Himalayas, where Jammu and Kashmir is mostly situated.
According to the recent Hangul Census 2021, the population of Hangul has shown a significant rise. Presently the Hangul population is 263 as per the 2021 census. In 2009 it was 175, and 218 in 2011, 186 in 2015 and 214 in 2017.
The census revealed that the number of Hangul males per 100 females was 12.6 in 2021 down from 15.3 in 2019. The number of fawns per 100 females has increased to 13.4 in 2021 from 9 in 2019.
The ratios ideally should have been 40-50 males/100 females and above 60 fawns/100 females.
 
 

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