Karnataka records second highest leopard population in country
HUBBALLI: Karnataka now has the second highest leopard population in the country. With 1,783 the smaller of the big cats in the wild, the State is followed by Maharashtra with 1,690 leopards. Madhya Pradesh has highest numbers of these spotted cats at 3,421.
The report Status of Leopards, Co-predators and Megaherbivores in India, 2018, by the Wildlife Institute of India, released in New Delhi last week, reveals that there are 12,852 leopards spread across the tiger reserves. The population estimation of leopards was done using camera traps.
In Karnataka, Dandeli and Anashi tiger areas, which are now called Kali Tiger Reserve, have recorded 221 leopards. The area has close to 23-25 tigers and is known as the largest tiger reserve of Karnataka. It also has a feasible population of melanistic leopards which have now been counted in the present census of leopards.
Unlike tigers, leopards are adaptive carnivores spread across different forest regions. Both Bandipur and Nagarhole tiger reserves have recorded good numbers of leopards. The report also shows the adaptive behavior of these big cats which have been found in tea and coffee estates. Leopards have also been found in fragmented forests of Ramanagara, Bengaluru Urban and Rural areas.
Officials from Kali Tiger Reserve credited the success in leopard numbers to the work of ground staff. The reserve has one of the most difficult terrains among tiger areas of the State. It also abuts Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary and Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary of Goa.
Dr Vidya Athreya of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) said that it is good that leopards are getting the long-deserved attention. “The focus must be on leopards that share spaces with humans and the importance of proactive measures to deal with conflict,” she suggested.
Camera traps deployed at 26,838 locations across India resulted in 34,858,623 photographs of wildlife of which 51,777 were of leopards
A total of 5,240 adult leopards were photo-captured
The overall leopard population in tiger range landscape of India was estimated at 12,852
A total of 26 sites were camera trapped in Karnataka that yielded 3,564 photo-captures of 836 adult leopard individuals