Status and distribution of Hangul Cervus elaphus hanglu Wagner in Kashmir, India.

Hangul (Cer vus elaphus hanglu ) is an endangered cervid restricted to the Kashmir valley . At present, a demographicallyviable population of Hangul occurs only in Dachigam National Park. Between March 04 and 06,2004, the Hangulpopulation estimation exercise was carried out at a landscape level in central and southern divisions of Kashmirvalley. Two hundred and ninety-six observers were trained in February 2004 for this exercise; in the Central division175 observers walked 964 km, and in the South division 121 observers walked 2,014 km for data collection. In theCentral division, Hangul population was estimated to be 214 (SE = 29). Density was estimated to be 3.09 hangul/sq.km (SE = 0.66). In the South division, the minimum Hangul population estimate was 30. The fawn ratio was observedto be 21 fawns/100 hinds, and sex ratio was 20 stags/100 hinds. The decline in hangul population can be reversed bycontrolling factors responsible for fawn mortality , grazing pressure/disturbance in the habitat, control of pariah/domesticdog population and discontinuing the release of problem leopards in the area. There is an ur gent requirement to initiatea conservation breeding programme to augment Hangul population in the wild.Key words: Hangul population, Line Transect, Lincoln-Peterson, Bounded-Count, sex ratio, Fawn Ratio, monitoring