Status of Leopard in India 2018 report – Highlights
Prakash Javadekar, the Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change has recently released the Status of Leopard in India 2018 report. As per the report, the population of leopards in India has increased by 60% from the previous estimate in the year 2014.
Key Points
- India has 12,852 leopards now in comparison to 7910 leopards in 2014.
- Madhya Pradesh is the state with the highest leopard estimates at 3421 leopards.
- Madhya Pradesh is followed by Karnataka and Maharashtra with leopard population estimates of 1783 and 1690 respectively.
- As per the report, 5,240 adult leopards have been identified in 51,337 leopard photographs using pattern recognition software.
- The data were either recorded manually on forms or digitally using M-STrIPES (Monitoring System for Tigers: Intensive Protection and Ecological Status) ecological android mobile application. T
- The National Tiger Conservation Authority-Wildlife Institute of India (NTCA-WII) will provide reports related to other species also similar to Tiger and Leopards.
National Tiger Conservation Authority
NTCA is an authority that was established in the year 2005 for the management of the Project Tiger and tiger reserves in India. The Project Tiger was started in the year 1973 by the Indian Government in association with World Wildlife Fund.
Wildlife Institute of India (WII)
It is an institute that conducts wildlife research in different areas of study such as Wildlife Policy, Endangered Species, Wildlife Management, Biodiversity, Wildlife Forensics, Eco development, Spatial Modeling, Habitat Ecology, Ecotoxicology, and Climate Change. It works under the Environment Forest and Climate change Ministry and was established in the year 1982.
M-STrIPES
It is a software-based monitoring system that was launched by the National Tiger Conservation Authority in the year 2010. It was launched in all tiger reserves of India to monitor tigers and maintain records.