The fifth cycle of leopard population estimation, published on Thursday, revealed that Maharashtra has seen an increase in leopard numbers from 1,690 in 2018 to 1,985 in 2022. This puts the state as having the second-highest leopard population after Madhya Pradesh, accounting for 14% of India’s leopard population.
The overall leopard population in India has also shown growth, from 12,852 in 2018 to 13,874 in the latest estimation conducted in 2022 and published on Thursday.
Madhya Pradesh, with the highest number of leopards in India, now houses 3,907 leopards, marking a 12% increase from 2018.
The report was released by Bhupender Yadav, the Union minister of environment, forest, and climate change.
According to the report, Maharashtra falls under the central India and eastern ghats region. The Melghat tiger reserve has the highest leopard population in the state with 233 leopards, followed by Tadoba (148), Navegaon (140), Sahyadri (135), and Pench (102).
Leopard densities are higher in tiger reserves compared to outside protected areas, despite the regulatory pressure exerted by tigers on leopards. Efforts on prey recovery, protection, and conflict resolution mechanisms are crucial to mitigate human-leopard interface issues, as stated in the report.
Virendra Tiwari, director of Wildlife Institute of India (WII), mentioned that this survey is a subset of the national tiger estimation report and was conducted in areas with both tiger and leopard populations.
States like Uttarakhand, Kerala, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and Goa have shown a decline in leopard population, whereas Maharashtra has experienced an increase due to effective poaching control and management of man-animal conflicts by the state government and forest department.
Pawan Sharma, honorary wildlife warden of Mumbai and founder of Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW), highlighted the importance of raising awareness to prevent man-animal conflicts amidst the growing leopard population.