Leopards remain healthy in the dwindling Aravalis, with a new study indicating they hold close to 85% of the forested area between Surajkund and Harchandpur. The two-year study, carried out between 2022 and 2024, has unveiled how predators, cattle and humans divide one of north India's most stressed landscapes, as urbanization tightens in.
How extensive is leopard presence across Gurgaon and Faridabad?
The study, part of the ‘Coexistence Fellowship Programme’ at the University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology, surveyed a 200sqkm stretch across Mangar, Dhauj, Damdama, and Kherla. Researchers plotted the presence of wildlife in 81 grids and spotted leopard signs in 66 of those grids. Striped hyenas were present in 70 grids, showing that the two predators continue to share habitat despite heavy human activity.
Camera traps installed at 15 strategic points recorded over 35,000 images during 1,500 trap-nights. Majority of the photographs showed humans and livestock, but included nilgai, hyenas and leopards as well. Uncommon sightings were the rusty-spotted cat, sambar deer, and elongated tortoise, which were seen for the first time in the Mangar-Damdama area.
What is the reaction of local communities to the presence of wildlife?
Interviews with 155 villagers from four villages portrayed a complicated relationship with the predators. Older generations of the Meo and Gujar communities remembered sharing their landscape with leopards. Youths were tolerant as well, but frustration mounted among those who lost livestock. Accelerated traffic, development, and dwindling green cover are forcing wildlife into settlements, fueling conflict.
The approach road connecting Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan and Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary in Delhi is unknown to law. At least seven leopards have been killed in road accidents since 2015, closer to the Gurgaon-Faridabad highway. One was beaten to death in Sohna in 2023, which demonstrates the precarious state of living together.
What measures are being considered for conservation?
The officials think that the results give a critical baseline for taking action. South Haryana chief conservator of wildlife Subhash Yadav mentioned the department is going to carry out a detailed survey with the Wildlife Institute of India. Locations for underpasses are also being identified in order to minimize road kills.
The report called upon the government to formally declare the Sariska-Asola corridor a wildlife corridor and demarcate private landholdings in the Aravalis. It suggested reviving ecologically crucial areas under community ownership and promoting greater local involvement in reforestation and water harvesting schemes.
Most importantly, the unnotified areas such as Mangar Bani, with rich biodiversity, need to be declared wildlife-sensitive areas. Private land grabbed by exploiting legal loopholes must revert to communality to aid biodiversity conservation, as the Supreme Court has instructed.
Why is urgent action necessary?
Scientists caution that centuries of cohabitation might not be sustained for another decade if nothing is done. Construction, mining, and the widening of highways continue to break up habitats, endangering predators which still roam much of the Aravali landscape.
A 2017 Wildlife Institute of India report documented 10 carnivorous species in the region, including 31 leopards and 126 hyenas. The new study builds on that data and issues a clear warning: the survival of the Aravalis’ wildlife now depends on coordinated, urgent conservation efforts.
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