No separate conservation plan for leopards in MP
| Date :23-Jun-2019 |
By Ankita Garg:
Leopard, enlisted as schedule one animal in Wildlife Protection Act 1972, is still chasing behind its safety and conservation plans in Madhya Pradesh. The population of leopard surpasses tigers in State and their death ratio is too high. Within four months of year 2019, more than 40 leopards have died in the State for several reasons but the Forest Department is yet to chalk out action plans. While four leopards were killed by tigress in several forest areas, three leopards died after drowning in well near villages. There were two leopards killed in train accident and five leopards died of unknown reasons. Sources said that number of leopards is higher in Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary but at the same time their death rate is also higher than that of other wildlife sanctuaries.
There are more than one hundred leopards in the sanctuary. Talking to ‘The Hitavada’ Ajay Dubey, Secretary of Prayatna, said, “Leopard are easy prey for poachers and they reside around residential areas in search of food and water. Death rate of leopard is much higher than other conserved animals in our state and Forest Department is completely focusing on tigers. They do not have action plan for leopards which is need of the hour.” He further said that leopard prefer to attack the tiger cubs. In order to save the cubs, tigress fights with the leopard and kills it. He said forest department, NGOs and social workers are completely focusing towards the tigers and their safety. He said there is need to draft action plan for safety of leopard too as they are schedule one animal. He said that fight between tigress and leopard is increasing day by day. He said leopards are moving towards residential areas in search of food and water as they easily prey favourite food dogs.
But at the same time, it increases the chance of man-animal conflict. Several incidents have been reported from villages of Madhya Pradesh where leopard were killed by villagers with lathi. Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (APCCF) Alok Kumar said, “Leopard prefers to stay between villages and jungle areas. They like to kill domestic animals and their body is lighter so they easily escape upon trees and behind bushes. We have directed the field officials to monitor the safety of leopard on priority basis. They are also schedule one animals and all protection is being given to save leopard too” He further added that several plans are there to conserve the all wild species and forest areas. One would be surprised to know that leopard’s population in Madhya Pradesh has surpassed the population of tigers. Three years back, leopards population was around 1,500 but now it is over 2,500.
The population of leopards has increased notwithstanding that there is no conservation plan for them in State. Even forest officials are surprised over the rise in numbers of leopards and they are ecstatic in this regard.A survey report says that Panna tehsil and Bijawar area of Chhatarpur district are having the highest population of leopards. Each of them has 74 leopards. Bandhavgarh is having 70 leopards followed by 57 in Sidhi (Gopdabnas), 41 in Goharganj (Raisen) and about 29 to 30 leopards in Vijaypur.