Context: As per a recent report ‘Status of leopards in India, 2018’ released by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change there has been a “60% increase in the population count of leopards in India from 2014 estimates’’.

Key Points

• The 2014 estimates placed the population of leopards at nearly 8,000 which has increased to 12,852.
• The largest number of leopards have been estimated in Madhya Pradesh (3,421) followed by Karnataka (1,783) and Maharashtra (1,690).

Region wise distribution

• Central India and Eastern Ghats have the highest number of leopards at 8,071.
• Western Ghats: 3,387 leopards
• Shivalik and Gangetic Plains: 1,253 leopards
• Northeast hills: 141 leopards
• While the estimated number of leopards has increased, the report alerts that the leopard habitat area has been shrinking alarmingly over the past 100-125 years.

Techniques Used

• Camera Traps
• Satellite Imaging
• Field work by the Wildlife Institute of India and National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

Limited Coverage

• While the presence of the leopard is fairly ubiquitous, the study has been conducted only in tiger- populated forests areas under Project Tiger.
• Leopard populations in other agricultural, non-forested areas like tea and coffee plantations, and in most parts of the North East have not been conducted.

Threats to Leopard

• Fragmentation of forests as well as the decline in quality of forests leading to habitat loss.
• Human-Leopard conflict
• Poaching
• Depletion of natural prey base

Conservation Status

• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN): Vulnerable
• Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES): Appendix I

Appendix I:

• It lists species that are the most endangered among CITES-listed animals and plants.
• Wildlife Protection Act 1972: Schedule 1
• Schedule I and part II of Schedule II provide absolute protection to threatened species. Offences under these are prescribed the highest penalties.