2018-11-30 Fri

India is known for its rich heritage of biodiversity and as being the seventh largest country in the world, it has a variety of geographical zones with at least three major biodiversity hotspots.

India Post issued various postal stamps commemorating the untamed wildlife heritage of India. One of them is Kashmir Stag which is commemorated on stamp on Oct 1, 1982, on the occasion of wildlife week.

The Kashmir Stag is also known as Hangul are widely found in the Indian Subcontinent. It belongs to the Red Deer family which are widely found in mountains of the Kashmir valley and northern Chamba district in Himachal Pradesh. Kashmir Stag is the State Animal of Jammu Kashmir.

This creature from deer family has a light rump patch without including the tail. The colour of body ranges from light to dark brown, fading to dingy white on the lips, chin. The inner sides of the buttocks are greyish white, followed by a line on the inner sides of the thighs and black on the upper side of the tail.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared the Kashmiri Red Stag as a Critically Endangered species. A joint project was undertaken by the Jammu & Kashmir Government and the IUCN in 1970 to conserve the Hangul.

Image Source: Mintage World