Ghost Trackers: The Indigenous Women Protecting Snow Leopards in the Himalayas
As the sun rises in the cold desert of India’s Spiti Valley, women lace up their boots and shoulder camera traps after finishing their household chores. For generations, the snow leopard, often referred to as the “ghost of the mountains,” was perceived as a threat to the locals’ livestock and livelihoods. Today, a growing group of Indigenous women is tracking the elusive cat in an effort to help save it.
The initiative started in Kibber village, where 11 women were trained to monitor wildlife across 144 square kilometers of rugged Himalayan terrain. Each November, the all-women team sets up camera traps in key locations along cliff faces and ridgelines, guided by subtle signs like pugmarks, scat, and scent marks. They work through winter, when heavy snowfall pushes animals to lower elevations and makes their routes easier to track. The women carefully check each camera, adjusting positions or swapping out batteries or memory cards.
What follows is meticulous work. The women tag every photo, identifying species and logging details that turn raw images into scientific data. So far, they have processed nearly 100,000 images from Spiti alone and over 1 million images across the Greater Himalayan and Trans-Himalayan regions as part of the Population Assessment of the World’s Snow Leopards (PAWS) project. They compare the snow leopards’ unique rosette patterns to identify individual animals and estimate the population in each area. Their work is already influencing conservation policies. A 2024 state survey recorded 83 snow leopards in Himachal Pradesh, India’s northernmost state, up from 51 in 2021, with officials citing local participation as vital.
But the initiative’s impact goes beyond numbers. By earning income, gaining technical skills, and participating in research, these women have changed community attitudes toward the predator once blamed for hardships. In the fragile ecosystems of the Himalayas, conservation now has new defenders ? and they are rewriting the story of coexistence.
Yesel Kang Copy Editor teen/1773020990/1613367750
1. Who protects snow leopards in the cold Spiti Valley now?
2. What key signs guide the women's team camera traps today?
3. When do heavy snowfalls push animals to the lower elevations?
4. Where have women processed many raw images of Himalayan wildlife?
1. Why is the snow leopard often called a mountain ghost?
2. How can local participation help to protect these fragile ecosystems?
3. Should women be more involved in technical research for conservation?
4. How does working with animals change local community attitudes?
As the sun rises in the cold desert of India’s Spiti Valley, women lace up their boots and shoulder camera traps after finishing their household chores. For generations, the snow leopard, often referred to as the “ghost of the mountains,” was perceived as a threat to the locals’ livestock and livelihoods. Today, a growing group of Indigenous women is tracking the elusive cat in an effort to help save it.
