Male leopards seeksafer haven in Thar

Udaipur: Lower competition, availability of food and water, increase in agricultural and forest coverage in the Indira Gandhi Canal Command area are luring the vulnerable leopard (Panthera pardus) to the congenial pockets of the Thar, suggests a research study in the latest edition of the National Academy of Sciences.

Over the past decade, wildlife experts have recorded range extension and persistent movement of the leopard from its established habitat in the western range of Aravalli evergreen forests towards the Thar desert.