In the Indore forest division, cases of leopard attacks on livestock were recorded for seven consecutive years. It turned out that the incidents are not scattered evenly across the territory, but are concentrated in several recurring "hot spots".
According to the national assessment of 2024, there are about 13 874 leopards in India. However, the total number of animals does little to predict where the next incident will occur. Leopards easily adapt to agricultural landscapes and the outskirts of settlements, so the key to conflict management lies not at the national scale, but in specific locations.
Analysis of compensation records for livestock killed in Indore showed that 172 statistically significant "hot cells" cover only 22 percent of the forest area. Moreover, many compartments recorded attacks for five or more consecutive years. Such recurring sites are most often located at the forest-field edge or around small enclaves with human activity.
A similar picture is observed in other regions, from Junnar in Maharashtra to the outskirts of Corbett. In each case, conflicts are concentrated in certain tea plantations, irrigated fields, or forest edges, rather than being evenly distributed. This means that a single national action plan is largely ineffective.
The solution lies in the systematic maintenance of digital registers with GPS coordinates. Such data allow mapping hotspots and directing resources precisely where they are needed: reinforcing enclosures, adjusting patrolling, and conducting targeted work with local residents. Spreading costly measures across the entire division makes no sense.
Technologies like thermal drones are also useful, but only as a supplement to understanding local patterns. The main thing is to stop reacting to each case individually and start managing recurring risks at the level of specific landscapes.
When conflict data become the basis for targeted decisions, leopards and people can share space with fewer losses for both sides.
