Trapped, beaten or shot to death: India loses 218 leopards in 2019

As the death toll of India's most adaptable big cat rises to record levels, some experts are worried that leopards may now be more at risk of extinction than tigers

India lost at least 218 leopards over the first four months of 2019, more than 40% of the previous year’s death toll of 500, which itself was the highest ever since the nonprofit Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) began keeping records in 2009.

At least one leopard died every day in India--trapped in wells, beaten or shot to death, run over on rail and road--in 2018, according to WPSI data, a primary source in the absence of reliable government data, which, when available, underestimate leopard mortality.

As the death toll of