PESHAWAR, Aug 9: The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Pakistan will introduce a livestock insurance policy in the high-altitude areas of Chitral District to protect the snow leopard from extinction.

WWF Snow Leopard Project Director Dr Javed Khan told Dawn that about 1,200 households would benefit from the policy.

He also expressed the hope that the plan would encourage the locals to help save the wild life as the policy would compensate them for the killings of their domestic animals by the rare specie.

AN NWFP Wildlife Department Conservator Dr Mumtaz Malik said that as shrinking of the leopards’ habitats in the region had resulted in the loss of prey, they often moved down to the low-altitude areas, particularly in winter, and attacked goat and sheep herds. Some times the locals kill the animal in revenge.

According to the policy, the herdsman will pay an annual premium of Rs10 per goat and Rs 50 for a cow. The WWF will deposit 15 per cent of the total accumulated amount and under the terms of partnership the village committees will decide as to how much amount should be paid from the joint account to the affected herdsman.

Conservators believe that the snow leopard, declared an endangered specie by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) in the early 1970s, is facing substantial threat from the local community, poachers and due to loss of habitats.

The WWF and provincial wildlife department officials claim that though the number of snow leopards had increased to 300 in the region, it still remained in appendix of the CITES. Pakistan had declared the snow leopard a protected species under 1975 Wildlife Act.