Leopard hills of India

I have written about urban leopards in one of my sections, however my experience at Jawai changed my entire opinion of leopard habitat. Situated in Rajasthan, the granite rock hills which essentially is an extension of the Aravalli range, shelters the magnificent species of Indian leopards. Fore centuries the kingdom of the Rajputs hunted leopards as common entertainment sport and pass-time, trophies of which the "hukums" proudly displayed. However for last two decades there has been a tremendous shift in the region and the locals have started understanding the meaning of conserving nature. As a result the rocky hills now is the perfect habitat of the leopards and possibly the highest density of leopards in India. The spotted granite rocks of the near barren hills with crevasses and caves have made the habitat perfect for the camouflaged creatures. The locals of Jawai are basically into agriculture mostly, while the dominant tribe of "Raberi" are pastoralists, people how graze livestock in large grasslands. Prey base of leopards are deers, wild bores, smaller mammals, have seen some porcupines and peacock also but at Jawai leopards only survive on domestic livestock, one of the unique way of survival. Till date ( while tourism has flourished ) there has been no human-animal conflict. My captures along with a bunch of extremely passionate nature lovers at EcoTrailz ( sans photographers ) is to depict the habitat of these leopards.