Rashmi Singh Rana

THT Seed Grant (January 2023)

Project Name:

Mitigating conservation threats from dogs on wildlife of trans-Himalaya

Project Brief:

The project aims to gauge and establish the level of threat posed by the escalating, free-ranging dog population in the trans-Himalayan region to native wildlife of the area and its conservation. The project’s target area is Lahaul, Himachal Pradesh.

There is not much known about the negative interactions between these dogs and the wild mammals of the region. The unmonitored dog population is further exacerbating this conservation threat. To fill this existing knowledge gap, the proposed project will systematically create a baseline record of all known instances of negative dog-wildlife interactions through community-based surveys across Lahaul, and conduct a robust dog population assessment. These findings will give critical insights to develop appropriate, locally-applicable and acceptable mitigation measures that can become a component of larger conservation threat mitigation initiatives in similarly ecologically sensitive trans-Himalayan habitats.

Project objectives:
  • To determine the nature and extent of the negative impact that free-ranging dogs on native wildlife through community knowledge.
  • To identify the key drivers of these negative interactions.
  • To facilitate institutional convergence to implement the suggested mitigation action framework to reduce the negative impacts of free-ranging dogs on wild animals in Lahaul.