Home : : Modelling Human-common leopard conflict in Kathmandu valley



Principal Investigator: Yadav Ghimirey

Funded by: Bernd Thies Foundation, Switzerland

Human-leopard conflict is inevitable when both human and this fearsome predator share the same landscape. Our plan is to assess how and why these conflict incidents are happening in Kathmandu valley with seemingly no solution available. We hope it will provide critical answers to what can be done to manage the conflict.

To study these conflicts, we collected data for all three District Forest Offices of Kathmandu valley and ran some descriptive analysis. We also modeled these points in Maxent using forest edge, NDVI and bioclim variables as parameters.


So far, our priliminary analysis has shown the forest edge to be the most important parameter in determining whether leopards move towards human settlements or not. Though, seasons are traditionally believed to affect leopards moving to settlements, our results didn't have any indication of this.

Probability of leopard entering settlements (preliminary analysis!)

In 11 incidents out of total 29, the leopard ended up dead.

News links
The Kathmandu Post

Annapurna Post (in Nepali)