Research overview: leopards as residents of Indian agricultural mosaics

Across India, leopards occupy a continuum from forest reserves to intensively farmed countryside, with sugarcane, tea and other tall-crop landscapes functioning as year-round habitat. This overview synthesises camera-trap, GPS-telemetry and occupancy research on how cropping cycles, irrigation, livestock density and human activity rhythms determine leopard presence outside protected areas. It examines the conservation reframing in which working agricultural land is recognised as critical carnivore habitat rather than degraded margin, and the management implications for harvest-time conflict spikes, denning in crops, and corridor maintenance. The synthesis links Indian findings to the global pattern of felid behavioural flexibility enabling persistence in human-dominated landscapes.