Mission Leopard 2025

Mission Leopard is going through an exciting evolution as we move forward into an era where human-wildlife coexistence increases in challenges but can be and is being met with effort and solutions.

New partnerships including WildTiger collaborations with the Jane Goodall Institute (Nepal) and Conservation Honey (as well as other introductions to be announced) mean fresh thinking and dynamic approaches going forward. Human-wildlife coexistence has never been at a more crucial and important stage so the initiative of the Youth for Human-Wildlife (YHWC) is an example of where we are headed in our action.

Nana, seen here with part of a group of children who took part in a program we organized for International Leopard Day, is one of the new wave of youth taking responsibility to ensure that coexistence strategies are being constantly worked on to ensure the safety and well being of both people and wildlife. Based at Bardiya National Park in west Nepal, Nana is one of the young people who will be profiled throughout this year as the YHWC network gains traction.

Chitra also hails from Bardiya and is currently a first year student at the Institute of Forestry in Pokhara, central/west Nepal. Chitra, like Nana, understands the challenges and complexities of human-wildlife conflict first hand, Bardiya District witnesses human fatalities after encounters with leopard, tiger, elephant and rhino as well as the issues around crop raiding, livestock depredation and retaliation against wildlife. Bardiya is a hotspot for such incidents and this brings the seriousness of the situation in Chitra’s thinking as she looks to play her part in providing solutions.

Summit Gurung lives in the mid mountain district of Tanahun in Nepal. The district has seen fifteen children killed by leopards in just over half a decade and unknown number of leopards killed in retaliation although combined with government sanctioned shoot to kill orders and relocation of leopards to national parks, the figure is thought to be between forty and sixty during the same time period as the human fatalities. Summit lives with his family in a highly affected area, he understands the feelings of his community as they struggle in their coexistence with leopards.

In the image above Summit tends to an early warning system device which is part of LeopardEye. Technology, alternative livelihoods are education/awareness are part of the safety strategies in this area of Tanahun and in 2025 will see further developments to reduce conflict including input from YHWC.

You can follow these developments at the Substack of Jack Kinross and there will be updates at this site.

Mission Leopard was founded by WildTiger. In 2025 partnerships with the Jane Goodall Institute (Nepal) and others will grow with YHWC being integral to our efforts to foster coexistence. Flagship initiatives focus on Nepal and as the year progresses there will be information of developments in India and other leopard range countries. Coexistence between people and leopards means challenges for both sides, ever changing. In 2025 we’ll be expanding and evolving our approach to these challenges based on what has happened in the past, current scenarios and outcome predictions for the future. This site will detail the challenges and mitigation efforts with content being added throughout the year and beyond.

Come back during January as we expand on our format with the name leopard being taken further with our support for different wild cats using the same name – thus more on snow leopard, clouded leopard, leopard cat and of course the big cat itself simply known as the leopard.