Description

When a snow leopard kills a yak or a horse – expensive and important animals to the Ladakhi – the owner used to be able to claim a sum from the government. The problem was that the process was slow and the villager in most cases had to spend more money travelling to and from Leh to get the paperwork done, than the killed animal was worth. Others who had found out how to work the system claimed money for animals that died from other causes.

Needless to say that this system was unsatisfactory. So the SLC spoke with the villages and came up with a better system: the villagers and SLC pool resources in a fund. Whenever a farmer claims an animal has been killed by a snow leopard, the village will know whether that is true or not, as in the Ladakhi villages people know each other and each others animals and the things that happen in their village. When an animal is killed by a snow leopard, the owner will get compensated from that fund.

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