Situated in the heart of Mumbai, Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) is a protected area housing 52 leopards in its vicinity. With increasing pressures on their habitat combined with their ability to live in human-dominated spaces, leopards have started to leave their natural habitats and enter suburban areas like Marol, Bhayandar and Uttan. Recently, a leopard was also filmed behind the IIT-Bombay campus In Powai. 

Venu Parmeshwar, head of operations, Wildlife Conservation Society – India shares that "such spottings tend to create fear amongst locals as they lack an understanding of these jungle cats and their adaptability to urban settings. Consequently, these encounters have led to human-wildlife conflicts which, in turn, caused their numbers to decline in the early 2000s. 

Taking cognisance of their dwindling numbers, wildlife conservation groups across India embarked on developing coexistence between humans and the Panthera-family cat. The result? An 8 per cent rise in leopard population from 2018 to 2022 as per the ‘Status of Leopards in India 2022’ report by the Union Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Also Read: How wildlife rescuers preserve endangered species of Maharashtra

Forest surveyors observed 20 states and tallied 13,874 leopards by the year 2022, as per the report. While these numbers reveal satisfactory outcomes, conservation efforts are still needed, opine experts. On World Wildlife Day, midday.com dialled up city-based wildlife experts to discover how they are tracking, studying and safeguarding the leopard population in Mumbai.