BENGALURU: At least 1,879 leopards roam free in the five tiger reserves of Bandipur, Bhadra, Nagarahole, Dandeli-Anshi and BRT in Karnataka, according to the report 'Status of Leopards in India 2022' by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, released by Union minister Bhupender Yadav on Thursday.
As the report shows the count of the spotted wild cats inside forest areas, Karnataka forest officials said an equal number, or even more, is wandering outside tiger reserves. This is not just in Karnataka, but in other states too.
As per the report, in 2018, 1,783 leopards were counted and documented in Karnataka, and now there are 96 more. The report showed that the entire Western Ghats landscape documented 3,596 leopards in 2022, while in 2018, the number was 3,387. India houses 13,874 leopards, against 12,852 in 2018.
In this fifth cycle of leopard estimation, the populations in 20 states in India were studied on foot surveys spanning 6.41 lakh km. Researchers from the National Tiger Conservation Authority and Wildlife Institute of India in the report quoted: “Although the leopard population in Western Ghats is widely distributed, it faces the repercussions of habitat loss and fragmentation and poaching.
Leopards in Western Ghats often inhabit human-dominated spaces, leopard-human conflict is prevalent in the entire landscape and has increased in recent times. While the Nilgiri forests harbour high-density leopard populations (13 leopards per 100sqkm), leopards occur in much lower densities in the scrubland, open forest mosaics of central Karnataka or the evergreen patches of southern Western Ghats (1 per 100sqkm).
In central and northern Western Ghats, leopard populations are distributed in higher densities inside the Tiger Reserves (Bhadra, Kali, Mudumalai and Sathyamangalam) while moderate to low densities are outside protected areas.”
Subhash Malkhade, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Wildlife, Karnataka, said these are the minimum numbers and the same number or more are outside. He explained that the leopard population assessed in the report was based on camera trap images in the reserves.
“More than the numbers, the trend is important. The carnivore population is increasing and shows there is also a healthy prey base inside the forests. Leopards are highly adaptive animals, they survive in urban areas because of the street dog population and meat strewn around slaughter houses, which is available in abundance now,” he said.