There are nearly 2,500 leopards in Karnataka as per the first-ever estimates of the spotted cat conducted in the State and possibly the country.
The study was conducted extensively across Karnataka covering Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary, MM Hills, Biligiri Rangathaswamy Temple (BRT) Tiger Reserve, Timalapura Wildlife Sanctuary, Jayamangali Conservation Reserve, and leopard habitats across Tumakuru, Ramanagara, Mysuru, Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Bhadravathi, Ballari and Chitradurga forest divisions.
The study included habitats outside reserved forests, rocky outcrops, private lands, etc., and is reckoned to be the first such exercise in the country on leopard population estimation carried out over such large areas.
Led by conservation biologist Sanjay Gubbi, and a team from Nature Conservation Foundation, the study was in vogue since 2012 in collaboration with the Karnataka Forest Department. The members included N.S. Harish, H.C. Poornesha, Ashritha Anoop, Rashmi Bhat, Sandesh Appu Naik, L. Gnanendra, G. Ravidas and others.
A release stated that the team submitted pictures of 363 individually identified leopards from the camera trapping work to the Forest Department. Based on the figures derived using camera trapping, it has been estimated that there are a total of 2,500 leopards in the State.
It said through a sampling-based camera trap exercise, individual leopards were identified using the rosette patterns on their bodies that are unique to each animal.
Later, using statistical methodologies, researchers estimated both density (number of animals/unit area) and abundance (total number of animals in the study area) in what is called ‘capture-recapture’ method which was first used to estimate fish numbers in the United States, and was later adapted for estimating densities of several other wildlife species including tigers, giraffes, rhinoceroses, dolphins, jaguars, etc.
Possible wildlife sanctuaries
Based on the study results, the conservationists proposed that some areas in Bhadravati division (Kukwadi-Ubrani, Hadikere, Hanne, Rangainagiri and others), that has a high density of leopards, and Bukkapatna (Bukkapatna, Muttugadahalli, Suvarnavathi, and other areas) in Tumakuru division, that also has a good number of leopards and hyenas, chinkara, four-horned antelopes and other species, may be notified as wildlife sanctuaries.
The leopard study also had a spin-off in that it resulted in the first-ever documentation of the honey badger from the State, apart from the documentation of chinkara, an antelope, in southern Karnataka. This study, which combined science, applied conservation and outreach, threw light on the importance of lesser known areas for conservation in the State.
