Snow leopard education included in Mustang’s school textbooks

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Oct. 23: Mustang district, which lies within the country’s Central Snow Leopard Conservation Landscape, has started to teach the importance of snow leopard for healthy ecosystem to school children through their textbooks.

The district is regarded as the best habitat for snow leopard prey and it is regarded satisfactory in terms of the number of wild cat. According to a study conducted by Dr. Madhu Chhetri and his team in 2019, 48 snow leopards inhabit the Annapurna and Manaslu conservation areas. For years, various efforts have been made to protect snow leopards in the district.

In an attempt to alert people about snow leopard conservation, snow-leopard-based conservation education reference books have been introduced as part of the Community-Based Snow Leopard Conservation Programme, said Anil Adhikari, who is working on the snow leopard conservation in Mustang district for almost two decades.

These books, meant for students in grades 6, 7, and 8, were published by Nepal’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation and implemented by the Teka Group Nepal with financial and technical support from Snow Leopard Conservancy.

“Snow leopards causing harm to livestock is a problem in this area,” said Adhikari, who is also Executive Director of Teka Group Nepal. “If livestock farming is managed properly, and farmers adopt adequate protection measures, damage to livestock from snow leopards can be greatly reduced, lessening the need for compensation. This is the message we aim to convey to local students living in snow leopard habitats through these snow-leopard-based conservation education books. Ultimately, we hope that these messages will reach the wider community through the students,” he said.

In addition to conservation education, the text books cover topics such as protected areas, snow leopard research, monitoring, Himalayan flora, human-wildlife conflict, natural disasters, and sustainable livelihoods. They aim to enhance awareness of coexistence between humans and wildlife, help the community understand snow leopards and institutionalise snow leopard conservation efforts.

Since 2021, Teka has used these books to educate over 400 students from six community-level schools in Mustang. These efforts fall under the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), which has provided conservation education through the “Message of Nature” reference books for over two decades. However, snow-leopard-focused textbooks and programmes have heightened awareness, engaged communities, and improved students’ capacities, according to Himlal Sharma, Chief of the Education, Youth, and Sports Section of Gharapjhong Rural Municipality.

In 2021, the rural municipality included snow leopard content in textbooks for grades 1 to 3, and they plan to expand this to grades 4 to 9 in the future, Sharma said.

Mohan Singh Lalchan, Chairperson of Gharapjhong Rural Municipality, said that the curriculum and textbooks, which were developed by incorporating positive aspects of previous conservation education efforts, have been implemented since the 2023 academic session. In the coming days, they will be expanded up to grade 8.

The inclusion of snow leopards in local curriculums is part of Nepal’s Constitution, the Fifteenth Plan, and local governance act that emphasises the identification of local needs. 

Snow leopard habitats in Pakistan also provide conservation education to over a thousand students each year, but the content is not yet included in official curricula, said Raja Muhammad of the Baltistan Wildlife Conservation and Development Organisation. 

Dr. Kulbhushan Singh Suryawanshi, Director of the Snow Leopard Trust–India Programme, said that while snow leopards are not included in India’s main curriculum, schools do use supplementary materials for conservation education. 

Karna Bahadur Thakali, a local textbook author, explained that snow leopard-related illustrations are introduced to first-graders, while key information on snow leopards, their habitat, and their diet is provided in an eight-page section for second-graders. “From grades 3 to 8, the curriculum will expand to cover snow leopards and community-related issues,” Thakali said.

The textbooks developed by the rural municipality include information on social customs, religion, local crops, important livestock, and natural resources, among other topics, alongside snow leopards. The local government’s efforts have institutionalized snow leopard conservation in Mustang by incorporating it into school curriculums.

“This initiative is not only a significant achievement for snow leopard conservation, but it also provides a model for other local governments and stakeholders in snow leopard habitats across Nepal,” Adhikari said.