Living with leopards 203


India, information on where they share space with people is limited (Karanth et al., 2012; Odden et al., 2014; Miller et al., 2016). The common leopard Panthera pardus is one of the most adaptable and widely distributed large felids (Gubbi et al., 2020), occupying a diverse range of habitats ranging from pristine protected forests to urban edges (Athreya et al., 2013; Kumbhojkar et al., 2021). Leopards have adapted to living along the interface between forests and rural settlements on the outskirts of human habita- tions (Naha et al., 2018). Conflict between people and leo- pards is a complicated issue that is influenced by species biology, political and social attitudes, and management practices (Athreya & Belsare, 2007). Livestock depredation is one of the principal causes of such conflicts (Graham et al., 2005), and can be significant where communities live near protected areas (Mishra, 2000; Linnell et al., 2001; Conforti & Azevedo, 2003) and wild prey is displaced by domestic livestock (Patterson et al., 2004). There have been numerous studies reporting trends of human–leopard interactions in India (Pandey et al., 2016; Crown & Doubleday, 2017; Naha et al., 2020; Ankit et al., 2021). However, despite reliable accounts of negative human– leopard interactions in various parts of Jammu and Kash- mir, scientific reports on this matter are lacking for the region (Ahmed, 2021). Kishtwar (High Altitude) National Park, the largest


protected area in Jammu and Kashmir, is one of the least explored protected areas in India (Kichloo & Sharma, 2021). Located in the Greater Himalaya and bor- dering the Zanskar range in the north, the Park serves as a haven for the Bakerwals, who are nomadic pastoralists. The livestock driven by these transhumant pastoralists


and the local livestock that accompanies them to the higher reaches of the Park during summer seasons are easy prey for predators, mostly leopards, creating complex human–wildlife interactions. To analyse the economic im- pact of livestock depredation, the resulting negative atti- tudes of people towards carnivores and the conservation implications, we interviewed local people in and around Kishtwar National Park. Specifically, we aimed to under- stand the spatial patterns of livestock depredation by leopards, the practices employed to mitigate such depre- dation and the factors governing people’s attitudes to- wards leopards.


Study area


Kishtwar National Park is the largest national park in Jammu and Kashmir, covering 2,191.5 km2 across an eleva- tional range of 2,224–6,293 m(Fig. 1). The Park is well drained by four major streams: Kibber, Nanth, Kiyar and Rinae, which join the Marusudhar River, a part of the Chenab catchment. The Park is characterized by vast and narrow valleys, rugged mountains, broken cliffs, snow-clad peaks, permanent glaciers and a vast drainage network. The vegetation primarily comprises moist, temperate, broad-leaved and coniferous forests, which give way to sub-alpine scrub, alpine meadows and rocky outcrops farther northwards. The climate is cold and arid with short summers and long winters. Temperature varies considerably with elevation and drops below 0 °C in winter. Precipitation, largely in the form of snow in winter and rainfall in summer, is determined by the elevation.


FIG. 1 Kishtwar National Park in the Indian Himalaya, Jammu and Kashmir, India, showing the names of valleys and the locations of human settlements (both local and tribal) in the area where we carried out the survey.


Oryx, 2024, 58(2), 202–209 © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605323001278


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