Two years on, leopard census survey leads to nowhere

What began as a major exercise to ascertain the leopard population in 2015 is yet to be completed in Uttarakhand, where the man-animal conflict has reached an alarming level.

The forest department will now have to restart the census all over again. “It’s challenging to complete this census which has practically come to a halt. If we ever have to monitor the population of leopards next, we will have to start all over again,” additional principal chief conservator of forest (APCCF) , wildlife and intelligence, Dhananjai Mohan told Hindustan Times.

The first phase of the census in mid-2015 was done in association with the Wildlife Institute of India, followed by the second. Both phases studied habitation, pug marks and prey distribution. However, the third and last phase of the census, which needed direct and indirect reporting of leopards, could not be done.

In its May 3 edition, Hindustan Times highlighted that a lack of camera traps led to the suspension of the final phase of the survey. But the forest officers are highly doubtful of completing this process.

Based on unscientific method, the last census in 2008 estimated the leopard population at 2,335 in Uttarakhand. Camera traps were not used in that exercise. Though Corbett and Rajaji tiger reserves have their camera traps, they are not sufficient for the survey.