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Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination

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Topic: TRAFFIC Study on Leopard

Why in News?

• A study paper on the seizure and mortality of ‘common leopards’ (Panthera pardus fusca), titled ‘‘SPOTTED’ in Illegal Wildlife Trade: A Peek into Ongoing Poaching and Illegal Trade of Leopards in India’ has been released by TRAFFIC India.

Key Highlights

• Of the total of 747 leopard deaths between 2015-2019 in India, 596 were linked to illegal wildlife trade and activities related to poaching.
• During the period 2015 to 2019, there were more than 140 cases of seizures of leopard body parts in Uttarakhand, and about 19 incidents where the deaths of these cats could be directly linked to poaching.
• More than 40 cases of seizure of leopard body parts and 16 cases of poaching were recorded from Maharashtra between 2015 to 2019.
• Leopards are poached for their skins, bones, teeth and claws.
• A significant number of leopards, and Snow Leopards in particular, are killed in retaliatory human/wildlife conflicts by rural communities as a means of protecting their livestock.
• It also found a significant increase in reported poaching of wild animals in India during the lockdown period that is not restricted to any geographical region or state or to any specific wildlife area.
• Reports of poaching incidences for consumption and local trade have more than doubled during lockdown although there was no evidence of stockpiling of wildlife products for future trade.

Efforts to Save Leopards

• The Global Snow Leopard Ecosystem Protection programme (GSLEP) is an international initiative that seeks to address high-mountain development issues facing Snow Leopard conservation.
• The programme unties the 12 Range States of Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan in finding national and international solutions to the threats facing this charismatic animal.
• In November 2018, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre to launch efforts to save leopards on the lines of Project Tiger.
• Currently there is no particular policy to save leopards in India.

Indian and Leopards

• The Indian leopard is distributed in India, Nepal, Bhutan and parts of Pakistan.
• Bangladesh has no viable leopard population but there are occasional sightings in the forests of Sylhet, Chittagong Hill Tracts and Cox's Bazar.
• It inhabits tropical rainforests, dry deciduous forests, temperate forests and northern coniferous forests but does not occur in the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans.
• Trade in over 1800 species of wild animals, plants and their derivative is prohibited under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
• India is also a member of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) since 1976.
• The last formal census on India’s leopards was conducted in 2014, which estimated the population between 12,000 and 14,000. The results of a recent census of leopard sightings are likely to be released soon by the Wildlife Institute of India.
• The conservation status of common leopards was elevated from ‘Near Threatened’ in 2008 to ‘Vulnerable’ in 2015 by the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

About TRAFFIC

• TRAFFIC, the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network, is the leading non-governmental organisation working globally on the trade of wild animals and plants in the context of both biodiversity and sustainable development.
• Its headquarters is in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is founded by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
• It aims to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by:

• conserving the world's biological diversity;
• ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable; and
• Promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.