Leopard goes up to 41 from 35 in 2015

Sanjay Gandhi National Park's leopard count in the wild has gone up to 41 — a population estimation study carried out in 2017 indicates. The report suggests that the big cats living in and around the park not only have been living in overlapping territories, but are also thriving due to abundant prey base available outside the park.

Wildlife biologist Nikit Surve, from Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), that carried out the study in 2015 and 2017, said that in 2015, the population estimation was 35. The aim of 2017's camera trapping study was to count the number of leopards in SGNP and compare it with 2015's database, and also check the movement of leopards inside and outside the park's boundary.

"Around 140 sqkm were covered and the park was divided into two blocks — Block 1 had 24 camera trap locations and Block 2 had 25, set up for 22 days from April to June. Apart from SGNP, peripheral areas of Aarey Milk Colony, IIT-Powai, Ghodbunder village and Nagla block were also monitored, said Surve.

Of the 41 leopards, 15 are male, 23 are female while the gender of three has not been ascertained. "Fourteen leopards matched with the ones in the 2015 database and 27 leopards were photographed for the first time," Surve said.

The report presents other interesting findings, such as the removal of one adult leopard resulted in two sub-adults occupying the exact same area. "This was witnessed at four camera trap locations where a male was photographed in 2015, who is now absent, and two other males were recorded in the same trap sites," informed Surve. The cameras also caught images of those leopards which were moving in and out of the park boundary and hunting poultry and dogs in areas such as Mulund and Aarey Milk Colony.