BRANDING INITIATIVE USING RARE DOCUMENTATION OF ENDANGERED SNOW LEOPARDS IN FEB-MAR 2012: Media work on the rare photo documentation of snow leopards in Kargil, India, incorporated tools like new media updates, media briefs and press releases. As a result, WWF-India received exceptional visibility globally including stories in 4 of USA's 10 ten circulating news papers - Washington Post, LA Times, San Jose Mercury News and Wall Street Journal, as well as well known international dailies like The Guardian and Toronto Star; apart from major Indian media outlets.

1. GLOBAL VISIBILITY OF
WWF-INDIA’S
SNOW LEOPARD CAMERA TRAP FINDINGS’
RELEASE
Feb – Mar 2012
Ameen Ahmed
Senior Communications Manager
Species and Landscapes Programme
WWF-India, New Delhi

2. BACKGROUND
WWF-India initiated a study led by Mr. Aishwarya Maheshwari on snow leopards of
Kargil District, Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), India in mid-2009. The work is supported
by the Department of Wildlife Protection, Government of J&K. The team
photographed a wild snow leopard in Kargil the same year in May, the first such
image from this remote district.
In mid-2010 the team set camera traps in Kargil and obtained images of various
wildlife inhabiting the region, including the Tibetian wolf and the red fox. But for the
first time ever images of a snow leopard were captured by these cameras in first week
of February 2012, a few kilo metres from the Line of Control (LOC) separating India
from its neighbour Pakistan.
WWF-India’s Species and Landscapes Programme communications team led by me
used these camera trap findings to highlight the status of snow leopard in India as
well as create awareness among the common man and policy makers about the rarity
of this beautiful cat. The event helped WWF-India’s branding. It helped raise the
global visibility of WWF-India among its existing and potential donors.

3. THE DISSEMINATION AND INITIAL VISIBILITY
Immediately upon receiving the images from the team in Kargil, a media release
was prepared and circulated to electronic and print media adhering to the existing
organisational approval processes. This resulted in the story being carried widely
in the media in India, apart from some US-based science websites.

4. THE BIG PUSH
In response to the
release, the New Delhi
office of the agency
Associated Press (AP)
approached us to get
the story out
internationally. With
minimal response
time, we ensured the
publishing of the story
and the images in
hundreds of dailies
and websites world
over.

5. SCREENSHOT OF A GOOGLE SEARCH RUN USING THE
RELEASE’S KEY WORDS

6. CROSSING THE HURDLES
CHALLENGE: A few weeks earlier, snow leopards had made news at global
level thanks to WWF-Bhutan’s stunning images of these rare cats from a
remote part of that mountainous country. The challenge was to find a way to
ensure there was spotlight on the animal again using our findings and thus
help its cause.
THE RESPONSE: The media, particularly AP, was impressed by the rarity of
the news and clarity of the release which emphasised the point about Kargil
being an 'ex-war zone' and the snow leopards being found just a few kilo
metres away from the LOC, a scene of intense fighting between the two
nuclear armed nations not long ago. We believe this is what worked for us. For
example, the Washington Post wrote "the big cats were not scared away from
the Kargil mountains by the 1999 India-Pakistan conflict that killed hundreds
of soldiers on both sides before a cease-fire was established with U.S.
mediation."

7. The story appeared in 4 of
USA's top 10 circulating
news papers - Washington
Post, LA Times, San Jose
Mercury News and Wall
Street Journal, as well as
well known international
dailies like The Guardian
and Toronto Star. It was
placed first in the
slideshow of Yahoo!'s top
500 pics of the day on 1
Mar 2012.

8. SCREENSHOTS OF SOME DAILIES AND WEBSITES
THAT CARRIED THE STORY & IMAGES

14. ON SOCIAL MEDIA
The best image of the story was shared on WWF-India’s social media pages,
which was shared widely by WWF-India fans and followers.

15. Thanks
Aishwarya Maheshwari
Ravi Singh
Dr. Sejal Worah
Dr. Dipankar Ghose
Anil Cherukupalli
Sonali Nandrajog
Further information:
Ameen Ahmed
Cell: +91 9654440590
Email: tumkurameen@gmail.com
Skype: canadaameen