The state will have to wait for result of leopard population for more days as Wildlife Institute of India (WII), which conducts this exercise, has to go through 3.75 crore photographs. The number of photographs trapped in cameras during field exercise is high and Institute has to go through them all before arriving at final figure of leopard population.
Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (APCCF) JS Chauhan said, “We came to know on Wednesday that we will have to wait for some more days as there are 3.75 photographs, which Wildlife Institute of India has to see. This will take time.”
The leopards were counted at the time of tiger count. The latter’s population was counted from December 2017 to March 2018 and results were declared on July 20, 2020 on priority as tigers happen to be key attraction. Therefore, the leopard count was pushed under carpet. Now, it has been taken up.