Nepal’s high-altitude wildernesses & wildlife are increasingly under threat (commentary)

Researchers returning to Nepal's Limi Valley in Upper Humla to check on a Himalayan wolf den instead found thousands of sheep and goats, herders from lower villages, free-ranging dogs, and burning vegetation. The valley sits on a transboundary corridor to the Tibetan Plateau and hosts wild yak, snow leopard, Eurasian lynx, and the country's largest kiang population, among other species documented over the past decade.

The shift from traditional yak and jhoppa herding to large-scale sheep and goat operations has brought disease risk from unvaccinated animals, unsupervised dogs ranging up to 10 kilometers from camps, and at least one direct confrontation between a dog pack and an active wolf den with two pups. The researchers note formal protection for the ecosystem has been discussed politically for years without action, while livestock numbers and grazing pressure keep climbing.

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