About the Hangul (Kashmir Stag)
The Hangul, or Kashmir Stag, is a subspecies of Red Deer found only in the Kashmir Valley — the westernmost population of its species and one of the most critically endangered large mammals in India. The state animal of Jammu & Kashmir, the Hangul was historically abundant across the Kashmir Valley and adjacent areas of Himachal Pradesh, but decades of habitat loss, poaching, and political conflict in the Kashmir Valley have reduced its population to fewer than 300 individuals, all confined to Dachigam National Park near Srinagar.
The Hangul's antlers — large, complex, and branching — were once prized by trophy hunters who reduced the population from an estimated 5,000 in the 1940s to fewer than 150 by the 1970s, before Project Hangul (similar to Project Tiger) was launched to protect the species. Recovery has been agonisingly slow — political instability in Kashmir has made consistent conservation difficult. Dachigam National Park, dramatically situated on the slopes above Srinagar, is the species' last refuge and one of the most important and little-visited national parks in India.