Research overview: human-leopard conflict in Himachal Pradesh hill agriculture

This overview reviews leopard conflict in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh, where leopards inhabit forest-farmland mosaics and prey on goats, dogs, and occasionally attack people. It synthesises studies of depredation patterns across elevation and season, compensation administration, attitudes among hill farming communities, and the influence of changing land use and prey availability. The literature considers how livestock husbandry, stall-feeding versus open grazing, and settlement expansion into forest edges modulate conflict. It also addresses the labelling and removal of habitual problem animals. The survey treats Himachal as representative of the broader Indian Himalayan interface where leopards and smallholder agriculture overlap intimately.