Guwahati: In a groundbreaking discovery, the elusive Pallas’s cat, also known as the manul, has been documented for the first time in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang District during a joint wildlife monitoring exercise by the state’s Forest Department and WWF-India.
This rare sighting, announced by Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein on Saturday, marks a significant milestone in understanding the region’s biodiversity.
Pleased to learn about this historic record, Mein stated, “This rare sighting reaffirms the extraordinary biodiversity of our high-altitude ecosystems and underscores the need for sustained conservation efforts to protect these fragile habitats. Kudos to the team for their dedicated work.”
The Pallas’s cat, a small, shy feline with thick, woolly fur, is typically found in the Trans-Himalayan regions like Ladakh, Sikkim, and recently Himachal Pradesh, but its presence in Tawang highlights Arunachal Pradesh’s rich ecological diversity.
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The sighting occurred in the high-altitude terrains of Tawang, a biodiversity hotspot with 79.63% forest cover, as per the Forest Survey of India 2021. This discovery emphasizes the urgent need for enhanced conservation measures to protect these delicate ecosystems from threats like habitat fragmentation and unregulated tourism.
The Forest Department and WWF-India continue their collaborative efforts to monitor and conserve Arunachal’s unique flora and fauna.