Page 19 - English Expedition Class 6

‘Oh no! We can’t kill a snow leopard, azhang-ley ,’ responded Rigzin, jumping up to his feet.
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‘Why not?’ asked a villager. ‘A leopard killed my yak last year.’
‘And I lost two sheep,’ said another.
‘I lost four rams three years ago,’ said a third.
‘Th e fewer snow leopards we have around, the safer are our livestock.’
‘If we free the leopard, it may turn up again when it feels hungry!’
‘Kill it! Kill it!’ shouted a chorus of voices.
‘You can’t kill this animal!’ said Rigzin as loudly as he could, throwing his hands up in the air.
‘It is an endangered one. Th ere are only about fi ve thousand snow leopards left in the world. Some
of these animals are being killed by angry villagers who have lost their livestock. Many are killed
for their fur and bones.’
‘Yes, that’s true,’ chipped in Jigmet, who had joined the group aft er feeding the calf some milk.
‘I heard this on the radio one evening. A poacher was recently caught with over a hundred animal
skins, and the news said that many of the skins were those of snow leopards.’
‘One person with hundred skins?’ asked a villager, his eyes growing wide with astonishment.
‘Yes, poaching of endangered animals is a serious issue. Luckily, it is not a problem in Ladakh.
Otherwise it would be something to be very ashamed of,’ said Rigzin. ‘Besides the leopard, many
animals like the otter, tiger and the red fox are poached for their skin. A tiger skin fetches the
poacher thousands of rupees.’
‘But there are no tigers in Ladakh,’ said Jigmet, puzzled.
‘Th at’s true,’ responded Rigzin. ‘Tiger bones have been used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Now that the number of tigers is on the decline, the bones of snow leopards are being used as
a substitute. If this continues, then the snow leopard may become extinct in our country. Our
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children and grandchildren will only see their pictures.’
‘And hear stories about them,’ added Chorol.
‘Yes, you are absolutely right,’ smiled Rigzin. He had begun to realize that the crowd seemed less
intent on doing away with the leopard.
‘But what do we do when our livestock get killed?’ someone asked, ‘It’s natural for us to feel
angry.’
‘Yes, of course it is. But we’ll have to look at diff erent solutions. Be more alert when taking our
animals out; avoid the very steep terrain on the mountains as that’s the area the leopard prefers.’
‘And make sure the lhas is fully secure,’ added Chorol. ‘It was a mistake to have made a hole
in the roof. We did it last year when we used the lhas to store our grass. We dropped bundles of
alfalfa from the roof into the room below. Th is year we temporarily covered the hole with a plastic
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sheet, but the leopard ripped that apart.’
‘Our fault, really,’ nodded Tashi ruefully .
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Later that night, Rigzin sat down in a corner of one of the temples in the monastery to pray. It
had been an eventful day. Once he had convinced the villagers to not kill the leopard, he informed
the Wildlife Department at Leh about the predator. Th ree offi cials and a veterinary doctor arrived

17 azhang-ley: the Ladakhi word for respectfully addressing 19 alfalfa: a fl owering plant used as fodder for livestock
an elderly man 20 ruefully: regretfully
18 extinct: not in existence any more
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