Nazneen Zehra
Aligarh Muslim University
Title: Effects of dispersal and density of leopard (Panthera pardus fusca) on severity of conflict around Gir PA, Gujarat, western India
Biography
Biography: Nazneen Zehra
Abstract
Common leopard (Panthera pardus fusca, Mayer) is at global dislike, principally due to conflict with humans at the boundary of the most of the parks. Opportunistically, high density and long dispersals of leopards may contribute significantly to draw them towards periphery specifically where they co-exist with other sympatric competitor. A long term history of leopard human conflict cases was obtained from the forest department (WDS, Gir), and was maintained on complaints of villagers regarding leopard problems at the boundary of the Gir PA. The conflict status was analyzed and resulted with consistent increase in numbers ranged from 4 during 2000 to 200 during 2012. Leopard density was estimated as an avg. 3.47±0.28 individuals/100 km2 along with high occupancy rate 0.915±0.024 respectively using mark-recapture matrix. The movement and ranging pattern of radio-collared leopardess was recorded ca.11 kms in each dispersal effort during 2002 to 2005 towards human vicinity and finally established home range of ca. 70 km2 in agro-farm at the coastal site. As the leopard is a least studied and most problematic large carnivore out-side protected areas, its conflict resolution strategy would be more successful with the information on the abundance, preferable home range size & movement pattern respectively