"Secure Himalaya", a six year program, was launched by Government of India on the inaugural day of the Global Wildlife Programme (GWP) conference
- This project will ensure conservation of locally and globally significant biodiversity, land and forest resources in the high Himalayan ecosystem spread over four states in India.
- The project intends to conserve the snow leopards by protecting their habitats and improve the ecology of Himalayan ranges and lives of the mountain communites
- This project will cover Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Sikkim.
- A total budget sanction of over $72.3 million is sanctioned to implement the program efficiently.
- The main aim of the project is to curb the smuggling and poaching of snow leopard
- The project includes the Kangchenjunga and Teesta valley areas in Sikkim, the Gangotri-Govind and Darma Bayas valley in the Pithoragarh area of Uttarakhand, Pangi and Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh and Changhang in Jammu and Kashmir, which are home to around 67.57 million people.
The project's objectives note that "the snow leopard, its prey, its eco-systems face a variety of direct and indirect threats... Habitat degradation and fragmentation of area are a direct threat and increasing due to the high dependence of local communities on natural resources and unplanned infrastructure".
