Author: Vinni Jain
Large carnivores like leopards, wolves, and bears have been integral to India’s natural landscapes for millions of years. Many of them roamed the dense jungles, rugged mountains, and scorching deserts of the Indian subcontinent long before the first humans ever arrived. Though carnivores are notoriously maligned, both in our cultures and imaginations, they play an essential role in sustaining the planet’s biodiversity. By controlling prey populations, predators help maintain healthy ecosystems that can support a wide variety of life.
Sadly, many carnivore species have disappeared from large chunks of their formerly wide ranges, and are now only found in small, isolated patches of remaining viable habitat. The Indian leopard is one such charismatic carnivore which, despite adapting well to human-dominated areas, has disappeared from much of its historical range.
Reports of leopards existing alongside humans in rural and urban environments has led to a perception of abundance and stable population sizes. However, this is difficult to verify, as collecting enough ecological data to accurately estimate leopard numbers is challenging.
In order to investigate the genetic diversity, population structure, demographic history, and local extinction probabilities of leopards in India, scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India and Centre for Wildlife Studies collected samples of DNA from leopard scat sourced from different habitats across the Indian subcontinent. They compared the results from the DNA analyses with local extinction probabilities estimated using an occupancy framework.
They found that India has four distinct subpopulations of leopards – the Western Ghats, the Deccan Plateau – Semi Arid landscape, the hilly region of North India (Shivalik), and the Terai or flat region of North India. The authors believe these genetically unique populations are a result of major habitat variability between the regions. The DNA from scat samples suggests that the Deccan, Shivalik, and Terai leopard subpopulation sizes have faced declines of 90%, 90%, and 88% respectively. The Western Ghats subpopulation shows a slightly lesser decline of 75%.
Using an occupancy approach, the authors found that leopards in India are still widely distributed, with the lowest occurrence in north India. The presence of leopards was more likely in protected areas, areas with high cultural tolerance, and lower human population densities.
These results provide robust evidence that leopard populations in Asia may not be stable or increasing, as suggested by other studies. Interestingly, these declines are relatively recent, with the data implying a time frame of 120-200 years ago. The researchers believe this could be due to increased human-leopard conflict and poaching along with large-scale landscape modification and fragmentation in the last century.
The current IUCN status of leopards is ‘Vulnerable’. Based on the evidence provided by this study using two different approaches, the authors recommend that leopard populations may be declining. This warrants urgent conservation attention, and a reassessment of leopard status, especially in India.
Research Article: Genetic analyses reveal population structure and recent decline in leopards (Panthera pardus fusca) across the Indian subcontinent – Supriya Bhatt, Suvankar Biswas, Krithi Karanth, Bivash Pandav, and Samrat Mondol – PeerJ, 2020
Find the original research paper here.
Find the Kannada translation here.
