Pench National Park

Panthera pardus fusca

VULNERABLE

The presence of a big cat changes the jungle around it, and those changes are easier to detect. Bird calls darken, small deer call softly to each other. Herds do not run but drift into shapes that suggest some emerging group consciousness of an escape route. A kind of shiver seems to run through everything, a low hum that sounds — literally, in the whispered Hindi conversation of the guides —  like sher, sher, sher! This zone of apprehension follows the cat as it moves. Often, the best way to find a cat is to switch off your engine and listen. You might then hear, from a distance, the subtle changes in pitch and cadence that indicate a boundary of the zone. But even then, it is impossible to predict where, or if, the cat will appear. I have written about this experience of meeting one of the big cats - the Royal Bengal Tiger - in the forests of Central & South India and you can read about them below.

But today it is about a few intimate moments spent with the other big cat, the Vulnerable Indian leopard - Panthera pardus fusca - in the beautiful Khursapar range of the Pench National Park which is set in a flourishing teak jungle, home to various wildlife species, including tigers and dhole. Pench National Park is a spectacular natural reserve, with typical teak jungles common to central India, offering a quiet and secluded game viewing experience.

Taking its name from the meandering Pench River, which intersects the park, the reserve sprawls over a breathtaking landscape of hills, forests and valleys. Coupled with the feeling of having the entire forest to yourself, the gentle, undulating scenery of the Satpura Hills creates an unforgettable jungle experience. The mosaic of vegetation, from lush valleys to dry, deciduous forests, creates a range of habitats for India’s exotic wildlife.

We first spotted this magnificent male as he quietly crossed the track well in front of us. His nose was pointed at and to our right. Our guide and driver both said he will come sit amongst the rocks on our right. We continued to wait and sure enough a few nail biting moments later he made his appearance at the top of the jumble of rock and sat down in the shade of a tree. He surveyed all he could see from his elevated position and all the while there were chital, sambhar and langur calls intermittently. The jungle vine spread the news that a big cat was afoot but not in the mood to hunt. He spent a good time on his seat looking this way and that and then made his way into another jumble. Here we expected him to cross the track again so we could follow but he disappeared into a ravine just before it climbed up to the track.

But this wasn’t my first encounter with a leopard. A few years back I had the good fortune to spend some time filming another beautiful leopard, this time from the lush forests of Kabini - the beautiful Cleopatra. Read her story here.

Pench National Park

Pench National Park, nestled in the heart of India in the lower southern reaches of the Satpura hills, sprawls a massive 758 km² across the states of Madhya Pradesh & Maharashtra. In Madhya Pradesh it is located in the districts of Seoni and Chhindwara. Named after the pristine River Pench it was immortalised by Rudyard Kipling in his Jungle Book. Every year millions make their way here to spot Akela (the Indian Wolf), Baloo (the Sloth Bear), Bagheera (the Black Panther) and Shere Khan (the Royal Bengal Tiger). It was declared a sanctuary in 1965 and elevated to the status of national park in 1975 and enlisted as a tiger reserve in 1992. The area has always been rich in wildlife dominated by fairly open canopy, mixed forests with considerable shrub cover and open grassy patches. The high habitat heterogeneity favours a high population of Chital and Sambhar. Pench tiger reserve has highest density of herbivores in India (90.3 animals per sq km).

Pench has a glorious history of natural wealth and unique cultural richness described in several classics ranging from the Ain-e-Akbari to the Jungle Book. Several natural history books like Strendale’s “Seonee - Camplife in the Satpuras” & Forsyth’s “Highlands of Central India” present a detailed panorama of these forests. 

The forest, lush and green in the monsoon, also harbours a wide range of faunal species some of which figure prominently in the IUCN Red List. Our story, however, revolves around a spectacular young leopard who is frequently spotted in the small hills and well-stocked teak mixed forest of the Khursapar range.

Pench National Park also was the location used by the BBC for the innovative wildlife series Tiger: Spy in the Jungle, a three-part documentary narrated by Sir David Attenborough which used concealed cameras, placed by elephants, in order to capture intimate tiger behaviour and also retrieved footage of various other fauna in the reserve. The programme aired for the first time in March 2008 and ended a month later.

Like all other forests in India leopards coexist with other predators such as Bengal Tigers, Asiatic wild dogs, brown bears and wolves throughout most of their range. Usually there is little interaction between species especially since leopards are very shy and mostly nocturnal (active at night) and the other species are mainly diurnal (active during the day).

The Khursapar Range

Sometime in the mid of 2012 the Supreme Court passed an order that sought a directive to the States to notify the buffer and peripheral areas of the tiger reserves, under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, to prevent tourism in the core areas. But after a lot of debate by various associations and state governments the court revised the order and said that tourism will be allowed but with restrictions in place. The impact of all these decisions was that the total number of vehicle permitted from the Park Core gates was reduced by 50%.

This created a major problem as the roads from the other distant gates were not in the best of shape so an exercise was undertaken to trace a road which connected the Sillari forest gate to the Whakari forest gate and was brought to the notice of the then, very dynamic and forward thinking, PCCF & DFO who actively worked and created what became known as the Khursapar forest Range. Towards the end of November 2014, I think, the Khursapar forest gate was officially opened as the buffer area of Pench National Park, Maharashtra catering to 11 safari vehicles.

But there were some teething issues as the forest area was used for grazing and also as a gateway to Pench dam for illegal fishing. The hilly terrain, almost continuous human activity and paucity of water the density of wildlife was very low. Big cats like tigers and leopards were almost never seen and even when spotted they didn’t stick around for long. Finally the local fishermen lobbied against the creation of the buffer zone.

It was not all negative though and there were advantages too like the proximity of the gate to the primary tourist facilities of Kohka & Turia. The experience of the safari itself was among the best given the lush green forests and these soon had the Forest Department taking action and a proper gate was built. A tourist center with washrooms was also included at the gate. Strategic water holes were incorporated to alleviate the water scarcity and the number of vehicles allowed was also increased. And gradually over the years the range developed into a beautiful habitat with a good number of tigers making it their home. Some notable tigers are Durga, Bindu, Baras, Handsome and they’ve also brought their families up energising the entire range along with numerous leopards, dhole, bears, gaur, chital, sambhar and the list goes on. Kudos to the people from around the area who contributed immensely with the help of the forest department to make this a beautiful part of the larger Pench National Park.

My grateful thanks to my companions - Angad, Rishi, Rahi & Golu - for bearing with me and my excesses. This would not have been possible without their help and incredible skills.

The Indian Leopard

The Indian leopard (Panthera pardus fusca) is a leopard subspecies widely distributed on the Indian subcontinent. The species Panthera pardus is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because populations have declined following habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching for the illegal trade of skins and body parts, and persecution due to conflict situations. The Indian leopard is one of the big cats occurring on the Indian subcontinent, along with the Asiatic lion, Bengal tiger, snow leopard and clouded leopard. In 2014, a national census of leopards around tiger habitats was carried out in India except the northeast. 7,910 individuals were estimated in surveyed areas and a national total of 12,000-14,000 speculated. Since that count, India’s official leopard count has increased 63 per cent from 2014-2018 per a new report released by the Government of India in July 29, 2021 — World Tiger Day. The Status of Leopards, Co-predators and Megaherbivores - 2018 was released by Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupendra Yadav .

In 2018, Down To Earth had asked wildlife experts whether a separate leopard census was needed to confirm the exact population of the species. They had dismissed the need for a separate, new census for leopards, saying it would be an exercise in futility. However, veteran conservation biologist K Ullas Karanth had noted then that one could not ‘piggy-back’ leopard surveys on tiger surveys, because there were vast areas where the distributions of the two species did not overlap. Similar thoughts were echoed by Mayukh Chatterjee, head of Delhi-based non-profit Wildlife Trust of India’s (WTI) Human-Wildlife Conflict Mitigation Division.

Officials also released the names of the 14 tiger reserves that had received the accreditation of the Global Conservation Assured | Tiger Standards (CA|TS), an accreditation tool agreed upon by tiger range countries. CA|TS is a set of criteria which allows tiger sites to check if their management will lead to successful tiger conservation. It was officially launched in 2013.

The reserves accredited under CA|TS are:

• Manas, Kaziranga and Orang in Assam

• Satpura, Kanha and Panna in Madhya Pradesh

• Pench in Maharashtra

• Valmiki Tiger Reserve in Bihar

• Dudhwa in Uttar Pradesh

• Sunderbans in West Bengal

• Parambikulam in Kerala,

• Bandipur Tiger Reserve of Karnataka

• Mudumalai and Anamalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu

The Indian leopard has strong legs and a long well-formed tail, broad muzzle, short ears and small, yellowish grey eyes, light grey ocular bulbs. Its coat is spotted and rosetted on a pale yellow to yellowish-brown or golden background, except for the melanistic forms - the “black” panthers; the spots fade toward the white underbelly and the insides and lower parts of the legs. Rosettes are most prominent on the back, flanks and hindquarters. The pattern of the rosettes is unique to each individual. Juveniles have woolly fur, and appear dark due to the densely arranged spots. The white-tipped tail is 60–100 cm (24–39 in) long, white underneath, and displays rosettes, which form incomplete bands toward the end. The rosettes are larger in other leopard subspecies in Asia. Fur colour tends to be more pale and cream in arid habitats, more gray in colder climates, and of a darker golden hue in rainforest habitats.

The clouded leopard can be told apart by its diffused “clouds" of spots compared to the smaller and distinct rosettes of the leopard, longer legs and thinner tail.

The leopard now occupies 25–37% of its historic range, but this obscures important differences between subspecies. Of the nine recognized subspecies, three (P. p. pardus, fusca, and saxicolor) account for 97% of the leopard’s extant range while another three (P. p. orientalis, nimr, and japonensis) have each lost as much as 98% of their historic range. Isolation, small patch sizes, and few remaining patches further threaten the six subspecies that each have less than 100,000 km² of extant range. Approximately 17% of extant leopard range is protected, although some endangered subspecies have far less. It was found that while leopard research was increasing, research effort was primarily on the subspecies with the most remaining range whereas subspecies that are most in need of urgent attention were neglected.

Cited from: Jacobson AP, Gerngross P, Lemeris Jr. JR, Schoonover RF, Anco C, Breitenmoser-Würsten C, Durant SM, Farhadinia MS, Henschel P, Kamler JF, Laguardia A, Rostro-García S, Stein AB, Dollar L. 2016. Leopard (Panthera pardus) status, distribution, and the research efforts across its range. PeerJ 4:e1974 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1974

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