First time in the country a scientific census of the Leopard population was carried out in Karnataka and found an estimated 2,500 spotted cats. This critical work by naturalist Sanjay Gubbi and his team from the Nature Conservation Foundation in collaboration with the Karnataka Forest Department has estimated the leopard population in the state at 2500.
Sanjay Gubbi said the research team submitted pictures of 363 individually identified leopards from the camera trapping work to the forest department.” Based on the figures that were derived using camera trapping, it is estimated to have a total of 2,500 leopards in the state” , he added.
According to Sanjay Gubbi the study is being carried out since 2012 in various parts of the State which includes protected areas, reserved forests and leopard habitats that are outside reserved forests including rocky outcrops, private lands, etc.” This is also perhaps the first study in the country that has carried out work on leopards over such large areas.