The Indian leopard (Panthera pardus fusca) is the smallest of the big cat species, which occurs in a wide range of habitats and is widely distributed across the Indian subcontinent. They are among the highly threatened species in India, with poaching, and death by accident or retaliatory events being the major drivers of their population decline. Classified as 'Vulnerable' by the IUCN, their numbers have declined significantly in the country.
Being an extremely adaptable species, leopards are distributed widely in forests as well as in human-use areas across large parts of India. Considering their close spatial association with humans (who are often unaware of the leopards living around them), human-leopard conflict is exceedingly rare.