On February 3, 2022, forest department officials have rescued a leopard from Sishugram Red Cross society near IIT Guwahati.

Key Points

• Leopard will be released in its safe habitat after observation.
• NKF Division has also started the process of leopard counting census under its divisional jurisdiction.

Leopard counting census

For the first time, North Kamrup Forest Division (NKF Division) has initiated an exclusive leopard counting census in Assam’s Forest and non-forest areas. Leopard counting census has been initiated in leopard density areas of Amingaon in Kamrup district. It started from January 31, 2022. Leopard counting will be done through camera trapping method. 50 cameras will be installed in Sila Reserve Forest, NIPER, Changsari, AIIMS etc. across Amingaon area.

Status of Leopards Report

• In July 2021, the Union Environment Ministry released a report titled “Status of Leopards, Co-predators and Megaherbivores-2018”, on the occasion of World Tiger Day.
• As per the report, official leopard count in India has increased 63 per cent in between 2014-2018. In 2018, there were 12,852 leopards in India, while there were 7,910 in 2014.
• Largest number of leopards have been estimated in Madhya Pradesh (3,421). It is followed by Karnataka (1,783) and Maharashtra (1,690).