India’s leopard population rises to 13,874; M.P. on top

Subject: Environment

Section: Species in news

In the news:

India’s leopard population increased by 8% from 12,852 in 2018 to 13,874 in 2022, as reported by the Environment Ministry.
The exercise to estimate the population of leopards in India is in its fifth cycle (2022).
The National Tiger Conservation Authority and Wildlife Institute of India, in collaboration with state forest departments, focused on forested habitats within 18 tiger-range states, covering four major tiger conservation landscapes.

Details:

The highest leopard count was in Madhya Pradesh (3,907), followed by significant populations in Maharashtra (1,985), Karnataka (1,879), and Tamil Nadu (1,070).
However, Uttarakhand experienced a 22% decline in leopard numbers due to poaching and human-leopard conflicts.
On a positive note, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, and West Bengal collectively saw a 150% increase in leopard numbers, reaching 349 animals.
Nagarajunasagar Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh, Panna and Satpura in Madhya Pradesh were the tiger reserves with the highest numbers of leopards.
The survey, which covered 20 States, focused on approximately 70% of the leopard’s expected habitat, including tiger reserves and protected forest areas.
Unlike tigers, leopards are more adaptable, often found in villages and cities, leading to conflicts with humans due to their tendency to prey on cattle.

Habitat conservation:

The report, authored by Qamar Qureshi of the Wildlife Institute of India, highlights that a third of India’s leopards reside within protected areas, emphasizing that conserving tiger reserves also benefits leopard habitats.
The study focused on forest regions surveyed in 2018, showing varied growth rates across different geographical areas: a 3.4% annual decline in the Shivalik hills and the Gangetic plains, while Central India and the Eastern Ghats, the Western Ghats along with the hills of the northeast, and the Brahmaputra flood plains experienced growth rates of 1.5%, 1%, and 1.3% per year, respectively.
The report suggests a stable leopard population over the last four years but with minimal growth, indicating possible impacts from human activities in multiple-use areas.
Significant findings include a decline in leopard numbers in the Ramnagar forest division (Uttarakhand) amidst a sharp increase in tiger populations.
Remarkably, 65% of leopards live outside protected areas in the Shivalik landscape, though both leopard and tiger populations have grown in Uttar Pradesh.
The notable increase in leopard numbers in the northeastern states was attributed to a “sampling artefact”, pointing out the lack of systematic surveys and fewer cameras in previous years.

Source: TH