Snow Leopard video tweet from Imran Khan, but is it Pakistan or Iran?
On December 25, the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan shared a video of a snow leopard on the social networking site Twitter in which a snow leopard was seen roaring in Khaplo area of Gilgit-Baltistan.
While sharing the video, the Prime Minister did not elaborate on the source of the video or who first filmed it. However, Baltistan Wildlife Conservation and Development, an NGO working in the Baltistan region, claimed that the video was recorded by their camera trap.
The head of the organization, Prof. Dr. Shafqat Hussain, is serving as Professor of Environment and Humanities at a university in the United States. He said that the video was recorded through a camera trap in Gown Khushe of Khaplo district.
He claimed that unfortunately the video had been shared on Facebook by a member of his organization without the organization's logo.
Prof. Dr. Shafqat Hussain says that it seems that this video may have reached the Prime Minister through social media, on which he shared it. He said that we have no claim of copyright act from Imran Khan on this.
''We are working closely with the government and the wildlife department and we believe that the Prime Minister has done well by sharing this video''. The whole world saw the snow leopard. They just say that if they had mentioned us or encouraged us, we would have continued our work more diligently.
Prof. Dr. Shafqat Hussain said that when the Prime Minister shared this video, he contacted Amin Aslam, Advisor to the Prime Minister and Minister for Climate Change and drew his attention to this issue.گلگت بلتستان میں خپلو کے مقام پر موجود برفانی چیتے کی ایک نایاب فوٹیج pic.twitter.com/E1SrrQk88m
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) December 25, 2021
According to Dr. Shafqat, at the request of Amin Aslam, he re-sent him more video clips which he shared with our logo from his Twitter account. He said,''I was later told by Amin Aslam that Prime Minister Imran Khan had also retweeted it''.
If you look at the timeline of Prime Minister Imran Khan, he shared two more videos after the first video and wrote, “More videos of snow leopards made this year have been sent to me. Due to my government's strict policy regarding their protection in their natural habitat, their number is increasing, God willing.
However, this time the logo of the organization was also present on the videos posted by the Prime Minister.
These videos posted by the Prime Minister have been viewed by thousands of users so far.
When the BBC spoke to Malik Amin Aslam about this, he confirmed and said that he had an old acquaintance with Professor Shafqat and had contacted him after the first tweet of the Prime Minister.
Khaplo or Iran?
If Imran Khan tweets something on social media, while on the one hand there is a flood of tweets from his supporters, on the other hand a large number of his critics are also weighing themselves.
Something similar happened with this tweet and many people criticized Imran Khan's tweet saying that this is actually a video filmed in Iran which Imran Khan shared from his account.
However, confirmed Professor Shafqat's statement and found out that his organization's partner, The White Line Foundation, had released the video in April 2020 in which he explicitly stated: He said that it has been filmed in Baltistan region of Pakistan.
The White Line Foundation released the video in April, citing its partner organization, Baltistan Wildlife Conservation and Development, whose camera trap recorded the video.
The video, released by the White Line Foundation, was broadcast on media channels.
What are the snow leopards in the video doing?
Prof. Dr. Shafqat Hussain says that the initial video shared by the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan on Twitter is a very rare sight.
He said the snow leopard seen in the video was an adult male at least three years old.
''This video is about the season when males and females mate''. It seems that the male snow leopard is roaring and sending its voice to the female.
He said that in the second video which was first shared by Malik Amin Aslam and later by the Prime Minister, there are four snow leopards in which one is female and mother while the other three leopards are young.
Why Camera Trap?
Prof. Dr. Shafqat Hussain says that his organization has been working for at least twenty years for the breeding and protection of snow leopards and wildlife in the Baltistan region, where his main focus is on snow leopards.
Prof. Dr. Shafqat Hussain said that camera traps are installed at the places where work is going on to understand the movement of wildlife and snow leopards.
"A camera trap was set up when we started work. Now about 25 camera traps will be installed in these areas.
He said the aim of capturing snow leopards and wildlife with the help of camera traps was to help research, understand animal habits and help in many ways.
Snow leopards in Pakistan
Prof. Dr. Shafqat Hussain says that 80% of the snow leopards in Pakistan live in Gilgit-Baltistan while the remaining 20% are found in Chitral area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Haider Raza, director of the WWF Gilgit-Baltistan, said that the number of snow leopards in the world at present is around 6,000 while in Pakistan the number is probably 200 to 400.
Gilgit-Baltistan Wildlife Department Conservator Ijalal Hussain has said that a survey will be launched again this year regarding the number of leopards in the country, which will give an idea of their exact number.
He says,''NGOs besides the government have done a lot to protect the snow leopard''.
"We think that number has increased."