High in the wind-battered ranges of Ladakh, where silence wraps around every ridge like a shroud, I came face-to-face with a story that felt more elegy than encounter. This was not the usual thrill of the wild — no chase, no fresh kill, no wide-eyed predator in its prime. This was something rarer. Sadder. A glimpse of a great creature fading quietly into the stone.This March 2025 trip was planned with a singular goal — to finally see and photograph the elusive Eurasian Lynx, a cat that had evaded me for nearly a decade and a half. As fate would have it, I was blessed with an unforgettable sighting on the very first afternoon. The following day, we searched again, scanning the terrain for over seven hours with no success. As dusk approached, my guide received a call from one of his contacts — a snow leopard had been spotted in a village called Basgo. Apparently, it had entered a house the previous night and was believed to still be around.
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