Srinagar, February 02 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, the population of the famed Kashmir stag or ‘Hangul’ is on the verge of extinction.

Already a ‘red-book animal’, the Hangul (Cervus Elaphus Hangul) declined drastically in the last 28 years. A census carried out during 1980’s, revealed that the number of Hanguls inside the Kashmir Valley was believed to be about 3,000-5,000, which declined to 197 by 2004 while in 2008 the population of the animal was found at 178.

This decline in the Hangul population is attributed to the increasing human interference in their habitat. Experts blame poaching, excessive livestock grazing, frequent forest fires, and the growing rate of predation from leopard as the major reasons for falling Hangul population. Hangul is the only surviving race of the Red Deer family of Europe in South Asia since the ‘Shou’ (Cervus Elaphus Wallchi) of Bhutan is now considered extinct by experts.

Hangul stags are prized for their magnificent antlers (horns), having 11 to 16 points. The animal was enlisted as an endangered species in the Red Data Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) in 1996.
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