- The Union Minister for Environment, Forests, and Climate Change presented the report on the Status of Leopards in India in New Delhi.
Regarding the Fifth Cycle of Leopards Estimation
- The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) collaborated with state forest departments to estimate leopard populations for the fifth cycle.
- It encompassed 18 Indian states, focusing on roughly 70% of the animals’ projected range.
- The estimation concentrated on wooded habitats within 18 tiger states, which included significant tiger conservation landscapes. The non-forested and high Himalayan regions were eliminated.
- A comprehensive foot survey encompassing 6,41,449 km and camera traps at 32,803 places yielded 85,488 photo-captures of leopards, providing significant information about their distribution and abundance.
Key Findings
- Population Estimate: India’s leopard population is estimated at 13,874 individuals, indicating stability compared to the 2018 estimate. Notably, this estimate includes 70% of leopard habitat, excluding areas such as the Himalayas and semi-arid regions.
- Regional Trends: While Central India’s population remains steady or slightly growing, places such as the Shivalik hills and Gangetic plains are declining. Overall, there is a 1.08% annual growth rate in sampled locations.
- Madhya Pradesh has the country’s greatest leopard population, 3907 (2018: 3421), followed by Maharashtra (2022: 1985; 2018: 1,690), Karnataka (2022: 1,879; 2018: 1,783), and Tamil Nadu (2022: 1,070; 2018: 868).
- Habitat: The tiger reserves or places with the highest leopard population are Nagarajunasagar Srisailam (AP), followed by Panna (MP) and Satpura.
- Declining Trends: While Uttarakhand recorded a 22% fall in big cat numbers, attributed to hunting and man-animal conflict, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, and West Bengal saw a 150% increase to 349 animals.
- The RBI recently issued major modifications to the guidelines for the Regulatory Sandbox (RS) initiative.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/leopard-numbers-rise-8-in-four-years/articleshow/108120804.cms#:~:text=NEW%20DELHI%3A%20Leopard%20population%20in,%2C%20Kerala%2C%20Odisha%20and%20Telangana.