Data from the Forest Department has shown that in human-wildlife conflicts in Maharashtra, most deaths are due to attacks by tigers and leopards.
The number of leopard attacks has risen to double digits in the last five years, with 99 deaths recorded as of March 2024. This accounts for 25 percent of all wild animal deaths in Maharashtra.
While the big cats lived in the forest areas near human settlements in the state, human-leopard conflicts have been reported in western Maharashtra since the late 1990s. Although attacks have been rare, the increase in human population has led to an increase in human-wildlife conflicts over the years, especially in sugarcane fields.
In the 2021 report ‘Status of leopard, co-predators and megaherbivores in India –2018’ published by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, the leopard population in India’s tiger range is estimated at 12,852. A large population block of India with 5,906 leopards is spread over a 91,427 km forest landscape in central India, covering the semi-arid zone of Rajasthan and the contiguous landscape of the Deccan Plateau (Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha). The Sahyadri hills of Maharashtra in the northern Western Ghats are included in central India for simplicity so as not to divide the state of Maharashtra into two landscapes. The estimated leopard population of Maharashtra is given as 1,690 (standard error).
The leopard population in Maharashtra can be divided into three regions – Vidarbha, which includes most of the tiger reserves namely Bor, Tadoba-Andhari, Navegaon-Nagzira, Pench and Melghat, along with protected areas like Painganga, Tipeshwar, Umred, Karhanla and large forest areas in territorial forest districts like Chandrapur, Central Chanda, Wardha, Yavatmal and Gadchiroli. High leopard density has been reported from Navegaon-Nagzira, Melghat and Tadoba-Andhari tiger reserves. Leopards are widely distributed in the forest areas of Junnar, Ahmednagar, Malegaon, Yawal and Nashik forest districts. The big cats feed on domestic animals as prey in the crop and pastoral areas of Ahmednagar forest district.
The forest officials have observed that the leopard population in the state is not only growing but also spreading to new areas, which has led to an increase in human-wildlife interactions in recent times. According to the data, the state recorded at least 15 deaths due to leopard attacks in 2024 up to March this year. In Pune, at least five deaths were reported between March and August this year.
Forest department data shows that 391 people were killed by wild animals between March 2019 and March 2024. While tiger attacks claimed 239 lives, other animals killed include sloth bears (12), elephants (9), gaur (8), bison (2), nilgai (2), crocodiles (1), wolves (2), wild boars (8), wild pigs (8) and one unspecified death.
Maheep Gupta, the state’s chief forest and wildlife officer, said, “While the forest department is taking measures to prevent human-wildlife accidents and conflict situations under a multi-pronged strategy, the increasing number of wild animal species is posing a major challenge. Tiger number increased from 312 in 2018 to 444 in 2022 and leopard number increased from 1,670 to 1,995 in Maharashtra.”
Leopard caught in Jambut village
Following the recent incident of a human being losing his life due to a leopard attack in Jambut village of Shirur tehsil, a team of Junnar forest department captured a four-year-old female big cat near the attack site. Shirur forest officer Pratap Jagtap said, “The leopard was caught early Wednesday morning and brought to Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre in Junnar. A swab test will be conducted to confirm that the animal was involved in the recent attack.”
