Context:

• A rare melanistic leopard, popularly called black leopard, was spotted in the the Navegaon Nagzira Tiger Reserve (NNTR) in the Gondia district of Maharashtra.
• Sightings of the black leopard were earlier reported in the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve and the Pench Tiger Reserve in the state.
• The high amount of pigmentation – melanin, causes the animal to appear black.

Status of leopards in India, 2018

• Status of leopards in India, 2018, mentions that the country has 12,852 leopards.
• This study focused mostly on forested habitats where tigers are found, as it was a by-product of the all-India tiger estimate.
• Hence, other leopard habitats such as rocky outcrops, smaller dry forests, higher elevation habitats in the Himalayas, agricultural landscapes (coffee, tea, areca nut, sugarcane plantations) where leopards are known to be found in good numbers were not a part of this exercise.
• Similarly, much of Northeast India was excluded from the study.
• Hence, the area studied by itself does not represent a true pan-India leopard population, as vast stretches of leopard habitats have been excluded from the study.

Misleading picture

• The claim that “leopard numbers increased by 60%” is quite misleading.
• In 2014, the study estimated a minimum leopard population of 7,910 individuals from 18 different Indian States covering a study area of 92,164 square kilometers.
• In 2018, the study was expanded to 21 States with a study area of 121,337 square kilometers, which shows a spatial increase in the size of the study area by 25%.

About leopard:

• Main threats: Habitat loss due to mining and quarrying, poaching for body parts, mortality due to vehicular collisions, retaliatory killing due to human-leopard conflict and accidental deaths due to snares set for catching wild prey.

About Melanism:

Nawegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve (NNTR)

• It was notified as 46th tiger reserve of India on 12th December, 2013.
• Its 5th Tiger reserve of

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/black-leopard-sighted-in-navegaon-nagzira-reserve-7392459/

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