India's leopard population increases by 60% in 4 years

Here are the key points from the report:

The leopard population has been estimated using camera trapping method.

There are 12,852 leopards in India as of 2018, an increase of 60% since 2014.

in India as of 2018, an increase of 60% since 2014. The highest concentration of the leopard in India is estimated to be in Madhya Pradesh (3,421) followed by Karnataka (1,783) and Maharashtra (1,690).

Recent meta-analyses of leopard status and distribution suggest 48–67% range loss for the species in Africa and 83–87% in Asia.

In India, leopards have experienced a possibly human-induced 75-90% population decline in the last ~120-200 years.

In Indian subcontinent poaching, habitat loss, depletion of natural prey and conflict are major threats to leopard populations.

All these have resulted in changing the species status from ‘Near Threatened’ to ‘Vulnerable’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

As for region-wise distribution, the highest number of 8,071 leopards were found in central India and eastern ghats, which include the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

In the western ghat region, which comprises Karnataka, Tamil Nadi, Goa and Kerala, there are 3,387 leopards.

There are 1,253 leopards in Shivalik and Gangetic Plains which includes Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Bihar.

In the northeast hills, there are just 141 leopards.

NEW DELHI: India's leopard population increased to 12,852 in 2018 from around 8,000 in 2014, environment minister Prakash Javadekar said on Monday. The minister was releasing the ‘Status of Leopards in India 2018' report.The minister asserted that the rise in leopards' numbers, coming on the heels of similar reports on tigers and lions, shows that the country is protecting its ecology and biodiversity well.