MUSTANG: A total of 17 snow leopards have been found residing at the trans-Himalayan district of Mustang.

Green Forest, an NGO, revealed the findings after a research carried out in collaboration with the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP).

However, ACAP Jomsom's Chief Niru Thapa stated the Green Forest is yet to submit its report to ACAP.

For the past three years, ACAP has been running a campaign to protect wildlife and control poaching through VDC-level conservation committees in all of the 16 VDCs of the district.

This has resulted in the surge in the snow leopard population, it claimed.

No official count of the snow leopard population had been conducted in Mustang before.

The incidents of attacks on locals' livestock by packs of snow leopards in Chusang, Dhami and Surkhang areas of upper Mustang  have increased recently.

Meanwhile, number of the snow leopards has also been reported to be increasing in the jungle areas in Jomsom and Kobang VDCs.