Two years have passed but the result of total number of leopards in the country has not been announced. Wildlife Institute of India is still working on the results. Data collection was completed in 2018. Madhya Pradesh, which carries tag of tiger state, is eagerly waiting for estimation result of leopards. The last leopard count was held in 2015.
“We are in regular in touch with WII officials. Last time, Madhya Pradesh took the lead with 1,817 leopards. We hope that MP will retain the tag of leopard state. It is already a tiger and a ghariyal state,” principal chief conservator of forests Alok Kumar said.
At present, Madhya Pradesh is leading with 1,817 leopards followed by Karnataka with 1,129 leopards and Maharashtra with 905 leopards. In 2019, MP was declared tiger state so it rekindled hope it will also be declared a leopard state.
According to government officials, during data collection in 2018, some 34.5 million pictures were taken through camera traps of which 51,337 were of leopards. Scientists and researchers in Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India are still working out on numbers of leopards. The WII scientists said the delay has been due to the difficulty in identifying one leopard from another in the photos taken by camera traps.
