Musk Deer Habitat: Why Altitude Decides the Answer

Musk deer are deer of the high Himalaya. They live in the valleys and slopes of the high Himalaya.

How high do they live?

A 2023 study says they occupy remote habitats above 2,500 metres. It places the Kashmir musk deer belt in the Western Himalayas between 2,500 and 4,500 metres. A study in the Askot area recorded them between 2,500 and 4,500 metres.

What grows at that height?

Musk deer live in cold mountain forest and alpine scrub. One study of musk deer habitat found oak and rhododendron at the lower end, from about 2,500 to 3,200 metres. It found Himalayan birch higher up, from about 3,500 to 4,200 metres. The Great Himalayan National Park says its musk deer prefer rugged ground between 2,500 and 4,000 metres.

What is the simple rule?

Think high. A low-lying park such as Manas, at 50 to 250 metres, is far below their range.

India lists four musk deer species. All four stand in Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.

What are the four?

They are the Alpine musk deer, the Black musk deer, the Himalayan musk deer and the Kashmir musk deer. The Act gives their scientific names.

How do you recognise a musk deer?

Musk deer have no antlers, unlike other deer. Males have long upper canines that stick out like small tusks. Musk deer are shy and live alone.

How threatened are they?

A 2023 paper says all musk deer species are classed as Endangered by the IUCN.

Is the Gangotri animal a Himalayan musk deer?

Not necessarily. The 2023 Biology paper shows a camera-trap picture of a Kashmir musk deer at Gangotri.

Gangotri is in Uttarkashi district.

What is Askot?

Askot is in Pithoragarh district. It was created in 1986, and the Wildlife Institute of India notes the date as 30 July 1986. A 2021 study says it was set up with the sole aim of protecting musk deer. It was upgraded to Askot Wildlife Sanctuary in 2013 and covers about 600 square kilometres.

Its height range is wide, from about 575 metres to 6,100 metres. A 2021 study recorded musk deer there between 2,500 and 4,500 metres.

What is Gangotri?

Gangotri National Park is in Uttarkashi district. A 2023 paper shows a camera-trap record of musk deer there.

Where else are musk deer recorded?

• Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary in Chamoli district was set up mainly to protect the musk deer.
• Great Himalayan National Park in Himachal Pradesh lists the Himalayan musk deer.
• Kyongnosla Alpine Sanctuary in Sikkim has musk deer on its bird-area record.
• Dachigam National Park in Kashmir lists the musk deer in its fauna.

The exam list mixes high places with low ones. Altitude separates them.

How low is Manas?

The Wildlife Institute of India says Manas ranges from 50 metres above sea level on its southern edge to 250 metres along the Bhutan hills. That is far below 2,500 metres.

What about Kishanpur?

Kishanpur is a wildlife sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh. The NTCA brief note places it in Dudhwa Tiger Reserve. It calls the reserve’s Dudhwa park a typical Tarai-Bhabar habitat of the Gangetic plains.

Does a Himalayan-sounding name help?

No. Check the height and the habitat, not the name.

Poachers want the musk pod. It is a gland of the male deer.

What is the musk pod?

A 1999 TRAFFIC report calls it walnut-sized. It sits between the male’s abdomen and genitals. Hunters take three to five animals to get one male with a large gland.

Do perfumers still drive it?

Less than before. A 1999 report on the European perfume trade says newer synthetic musk is increasingly replacing natural musk in perfumes. It says cosmetics, shampoos and detergents use only synthetic musk.

What else drives it?

A 1999 report says musk was in about 300 pharmaceutical preparations in traditional Chinese and Korean medicine. A 2023 paper says the use in Asian traditional medicines likely began around the fifth century.

What did musk cost?

The report says that at the end of the 1970s musk reached US$45,000 per kilogram. That was a peak, not today’s price. It still calls musk one of the most expensive natural products.

Two rules matter: the Indian Act and the CITES treaty.

What does the Act say?

All four Indian species stand in Schedule I.

What does CITES say?

The 1999 report says all musk deer have been in the CITES appendices since 1979. The Act’s CITES list puts the Indian, Nepalese, Bhutanese, Pakistani, Afghan and Myanmar populations in Appendix I. Other populations are in Appendix II.

The 1999 report says an Appendix I listing prohibits international commercial trade in wild-origin specimens.

No. The record shows failed attempts.

What happened?

A news report says breeding of the Alpine musk deer, Moschus chrysogaster, started in 1965. It says the work was taken up seriously after 1975. Centres were built at Kufri, Almora and Chamoli. It says they failed to meet their aims.

The report cites the Beauty Without Cruelty-India website for a centre opened in 1982 inside Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary with five musk deer. The centre closed in 2006. All but one deer had died, and the survivor went to a Darjeeling zoo.

What did a 2025 report say?

A 2025 news report says no conservation-breeding programme was ever started in India. It quotes an expert who says India has no founder stock. Earlier efforts, before the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, were not for conservation breeding.

What follows?

Captive breeding has not delivered, so the wild population matters most.

Examiners list four protected areas and ask which suit the animal.

What was UPSC CSP 2020, question 77?

The question asked for the most likely places to find the musk deer. It listed Askot, Gangotri, Kishanpur and Manas. The Set A key gives (a), Askot and Gangotri only.

Which facts should you hold?

• Musk deer live above about 2,500 metres.
• Four species stand in Schedule I.
• Askot was created for musk deer in 1986.
• Manas ranges from 50 to 250 metres.
• Natural musk reached US$45,000 per kilogram at the end of the 1970s.