Vanishing Indian Leopard
nlok...@gmail.com
time immemorial and like every other continent except Australia had
been present and kept company with humans. It has spots all over its
body and can be of yellow coat . Leopards belong to the cat family and
third biggest animal in the cat family after Tiger and Lion. It is
having different names in different places and called as Leopard,
Panther, Puma, Mountain Lion, and Jaguar etc. Leopards have been the
inhabitants of Asia and Africa and found in all the forests of India.
They are also found in some of the south eastern countries like
Indonesia, Malaysia and China. A slightly varied species is the Black
Panther which has a coat of black hair.
Leopards normally hunt and eat smaller mammals, fish and birds and are
an excellent hunter and also are capable of climbing trees. It can
grow to a weight of 95 kgs. They have a slender body which helps them
to run and track their prey.
Leopards are not of the same group and family of Cheetahs. Cheetahs
have vanished from Indian forests long time ago. But Leopards or
panthers still live in al most all the areas forests, mountains,
thickets, deserts etc and some times so close to human inhabitants it
is difficult to locate or identify. Its presence is normally found by
the attacks on cattle, poultry, and dogs and rarely on humans.
Normally they will not attack humans, but if no other food is
available, or wounded or aged they attack humans. They normally hunt
in the night and hence difficult to sight and could escape stealthy.
It can eat any food that it comes across. Indian leopards can mate
through out the year and can deliver cubs after a gestation period of
45 days. After about three months the cubs follow the mother in
hunting and after about one year will go of their own to live their
own life.
There are about 30 species of leopards depending on the place of their
origin, color, size etc. Today their populations have down wherever
the lived. Because population explosion, higher density of humans,
loss of forests, hiding place and trees getting reduced these animals
are now getting killed and have the problem of food since their preys
are also endangered and the time is not far for them to be in the
extinct list. Unless some action is taken to conserve them, they will
also go the same way cheetahs have gone in India. Then a day will come
when people can see leopard only in Zoos since many a killing of the
animal is reported for entering and killing humans by even police and
forest officials.
Leopards are attacked by other big cats like Lion and Tigers. So a
time has come to protect them as they belong to the great cat family
along with Tiger and Lion. But who cares?