Maharashtra leopard toll down but most deaths due to road accidents

Nagpur: Even as there is a decline in leopard deaths in the last three years, the forest department figures show that road accidents and vehicle hits continue to be the biggest reasons for the high toll in Maharashtra.
In last three years, most state highways have been converted into national highways leading to widening of roads from two lanes to four. However, barring NH7 (Nagpur-Jabalpur) and NH-6 (Bhandara-Deori), nowhere in the region have mitigation measures been taken by the road development agencies.
The figures from 2020 to December 19, 2022, show that 489 leopards have died in the state. Of these more than 50% (257) died in road accidents and vehicle hits, more than what have been poached (43) or drowned in wells (79). Apart from natural deaths, there were other reasons like deaths due to snares, poisoning, run over by trains, fires etc.
In 2019, 110 leopard deaths were reported. However, in 2020, there was a huge spurt with 198 deaths followed by 167 in 2021, and 124 in 2022 (till December 19). Most of the deaths have been reported in high-density areas of Pune and Nashik circles. Nashik reported 208 deaths in the last four years while 119 leopards died in Pune, 32 in Aurangabad, and 29 in Kolhapur circles.
Talking to TOI, Nashik chief conservator of forest (CCF) NB Gudge said, “One of the reasons is that there is a dearth of natural predators of leopards and hence their numbers have been increasing. Besides, changing crop patterns and distorted male-female ratios are other reasons. Nashik and Ahmednagar are sugarcane belts which have turned into a breeding ground for leopards.”
“These big cats have been living in close vicinity of humans and are vulnerable to road hits and drowning in wells. Though mortality is high, their numbers are also going up,” Gudge said.
It is evident that 2020 and 2021 were particularly bad for leopards. In these two years, the incidents of road kills were very high. In the given data, poaching seems to have peaked only in 2021, otherwise it is fairly flat.
“Most of the deaths in accidents have happened on roads around Nashik, Ahmednagar, and Pune. It is possible that sufficient mitigation measures were not taken,” said wildlife experts.
“One must also realize that with the advent of new generation cars and widening of roads, the overall speed and volume of traffic has increased drastically. Poor animals don't stand a chance of crossing a wide highway safely. The forest department should conduct an audit of mitigation measures to find out their worthiness in the context of repeated deaths in some areas,” experts told TOI.
“In Eastern Vidarbha, it is quite possible that the leopard population may not be faring very well given the population explosion of their natural competitors, the tigers,” they said.
As per MoEFCC’s ‘Status of leopards in India’ report released in December 2021, Maharashtra has 1,690 leopards, which is the third-largest population in the country. Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of leopards (3,421), followed by Karnataka (1,783).
“Having more leopards doesn’t mean these animals should be left to die. Every small road in the state is being widened despite low traffic volume. The highways ministry and PWD are expanding more than 15,000km of roads and it is high time the forest department, NHAI, and PWD sit together to decide on mitigation measures,” said green crusader Anasuya Kale-Chhabrani.