Headlines
  • False or misleading informations are spread by organizations posing as legitimate media outlets in an attempt to twist public opinion in favor of a certain ideology.
  • On social media,watch out for fake messages,pictures,Videos and news.
  • Always Check Independent Fact Checking Sites if You Have Some Doubts About the Authenticity of Any Information or Picture or video.
  • Check Google Images for AuthThe Google Reverse Images search can helps you.
  • It Would Be Better to Ignore Social Media Messages that are forwarded from Unknown or Little-Known Sources.
  • If a fake message asks you to share something, you can quickly recognize it as fake messege.
  • It is a heinous crime and punishable offence to post obscene, morphed images of women on social media networks, sometimes even in pornographic websites, as retaliation.
  • Deepfakes use artificial intelligence (AI)-driven deep learning software to manipulate preexisting photographs, videos, or audio recordings of a person to create new, fake images, videos, and audio recordings.
  • AI technology has the ability to manipulate media and swap out a genuine person's voice and likeness for similar counter parts.
  • Deepfake creators use this fake substance to spread misinformation and other illegal activities.Deepfakes are frequently used on social networking sites to elicit heated responses or defame opponents.
  • One can identify AI created fake videos by identifying abnormal eye movement, Unnatural facial expressions, a lack of feeling, awkward-looking hand,body or posture,unnatural physical movement or form, unnatural coloring, Unreal-looking hair,teeth that don't appear natural, Blurring, inconsistent audio or noise, images that appear unnatural when slowed down, differences between hashtags blockchain-based digital fingerprints, reverse image searches.
  • Look for details,like stange background,orientation of teeth,handsclothing,asymmetrical facial features,use reverse image search tools.

More Details

India is Home to At least 718 Snow Leopards:Survey

Climate change is an overarching threat to their population, expert says

By Subel Rai Bhandari for RFA,Bangkok,Thailand

A snow leopard caught in a camera trap photograph in Uttarakhand, a northwestern state of India close to Tibet border.Credit: WWF Via RFA

India’s inaugural survey on snow leopards has unveiled a population of 718 individuals within its borders, signaling hope for the species despite threats from poaching, climate change, infrastructure development and the degradation of their high-altitude habitats. 

The current global population of snow leopard is estimated to be between 4,731 and 7,465, making India’s count between 10 to 16%, Rishi Kumar Sharma, the head of snow leopard conservation at World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF)-India, told Radio Free Asia on Friday.

The survey, conducted between 2019 and 2023, covered 120,000 square kilometers (46,332 square miles) with more than 2,000 camera traps across the Himalayas from Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, the northern states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and the northeastern states of Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.

The Snow Leopard Population Assessment in India (SPAI) report, part of the global Population Assessment of the World’s Snow Leopards (PAWS) initiative, was released earlier this month.

“Until recent years, the snow leopard range in India was undefined due to a lack of extensive nationwide assessments for this vulnerable species,” said India’s environment ministry.

A snow leopard caught in a camera trap photograph in Sikkim, a northeastern state of India.Credit: WWF Via RFA

They typically live in high, rugged mountain landscapes at altitudes over 3,000 meters (9,843 feet). They are found in a sparse distribution across 12 trans-Himalayan-Siberian countries, from southern Russia to the Tibetan plateau, as well as Mongolia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal.

In Ladakh, the most significant proof of snow leopard existence was documented by the India survey, as camera traps captured images of 126 distinct individuals, leading to an estimated population of around 477.

Ladakh is in the northwestern part of India and shares a border with Tibet and Xinjiang, which also host snow leopards. However, the population in China has not been scientifically assessed.

“Limited radio-collaring studies clearly indicate transboundary movement and, in many cases, even home ranges that span two-country boundaries,” Sharma said.

According to the 2014 Snow Leopard Survival Strategy report, China has 60% of the big cat’s global population in about 1.1 million square kilometers (424,712 square miles). 

Sharma said WWF-China and its partners have begun “an ambitious exercise to estimate the snow leopard population in China.”

“The studies so far indicate that snow leopards and their habitats are being protected well in China,” he added.

Climate change risk

Snow leopards are classified as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, where they have been listed since 1988. Their estimated and projected decline is at least 10% by 2040.

Spanning 70% of India’s potential habitats for snow leopards, the survey aimed to deliver a precise count of these elusive wildcats for the first time, focusing on securing their future by charting their territories and addressing the challenges they encounter.

“The findings not only contribute significantly to our understanding of snow leopard ecology but also emphasize the ecological importance of the high-altitude environments they inhabit,” the report added.

Experts say snow leopards are at risk due to climate change, habitat fragmentation, and retaliatory killings stemming from human-wildlife conflicts. Additionally, they fall victim to poaching, as humans illegally trade their fur and body parts.

A snow leopard caught in a camera trap photograph in Sikkim, a northeastern state of India.Credit: WWF Via RFA

In Nepal, conservationists have found common leopards at higher altitudes, raising fears of interaction or conflict between them and snow leopards.

Sharma said such overlapping between snow leopards, common leopards, and even tigers is common in the region. 

“These interactions are just coming to the fore now with more expeditions, scientific surveys, and data. Climate change, however, might exacerbate these interactions and lead to competition for resources between the cats,” he said.

“Climate change is an overarching threat to snow leopards and their habitats. It exacerbates and magnifies every other threat affecting the people and their livelihoods, ecosystems, and species,” Sharma said.

“Studies so far indicate multiple and complex pathways in which climate change will impact snow leopards and their habitats,” Sharma noted, citing research that suggests only “about 35% of snow leopard habitat will remain as climate refugia for them by 2070 if the current rates of emissions continue.”

“The visible/emerging impacts include increasing frequency of extreme weather events, degradation and browning of alpine meadows, droughts and rapid melting of glaciers,” he added.

Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.

“Copyright © 1998-2023, RFA.
Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia,
2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20036.
https://www.rfa.org.”

Related Article

Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina on…

Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina who has spent 14 years on death row in Indonesia, will be coming home b ...
November 21, 2024

Myanmar Junta Airstrike Kills Vhildren Playing…

Myanmar’s air force bombed a church where displaced people were sheltering near the border with Ch ...
November 18, 2024

Bangkok Court Clears Thai Woman of…

A Bangkok court on Thursday acquitted a Thai woman accused of supporting two Chinese ethnic Uyghur m ...
November 8, 2024

Residents of Kamala Harris’s Ancestral Indian…

At the Hindu temple in Thulasendrapuram, the ancestral village of Kamala Harris, in Tamil Nadu, Indi ...
November 7, 2024

TikTok Deletes Videos Related to Uyghur…

Authorities in Xinjiang have banned Uyghurs from using social media apps, including Chinese-owned ...
November 6, 2024

In Post-Hasina Bangladesh,Awami League Faces Uncertain…

With its leaders in jail or fleeing from justice, the party that led Bangladesh to independence and ...
October 29, 2024

Other Article

News & Views

Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina on…

Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina who has spent 14 years on death row in Indonesia, will be coming home b ...
November 21, 2024
Video Report

Trapped in Lebanon, African Migrants Face…

Many of the estimated 176,000 migrants living in Lebanon are African women who are working menial jo ...
Pick of the Day

Permanent Representative of France Briefs Press…

Nicolas de Rivière,Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations, briefs reporters after ...
November 20, 2024
Video Report

The Impact on a Ukrainian Family…

This week marks 1,000 days of fighting in Ukraine.For millions of Ukrainians, including 32-year-old ...
Pick of the Day

UN Security Council Meets to Discuss…

James Kariuki,Deputy Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations and Presid ...
November 19, 2024
Video Report

Syrian Refugees in Lebanon Flee Bombs

Over half a million people, many of them were refugees who initially fled the Syrian conflict, have ...

[wp-rss-aggregator feeds="crime-more-world"]
Top