Indian Leopard (Panthera pardus fusca)

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Meet the Big Daddy, Mastani and Mastikhor of Mumbai
IT’s ALL IN the NAME | Sanjay Gandhi National Park officials complete task of naming 35 wild leopards in the 140-sq-km forest area

*This image is copyright of its original author

Virat A Singh@singhvirat246

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Mumbai: When two female leopards don’t like each other and avoid each other, what do you call them?
Ask Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) officials, and you get the answer: Sonu and Monu! SGNP officials have just completed a major exercise – that of naming the 35 wild leopards roaming about the 140 sq-km park.
Naming leopards is no laughing matter. Each leopard has its unique characteristic. And just as a leopard doesn’t change its spots, you can’t change its name either.
Kalu is Kalu because of a black mark on its left flank, and you can’t call Sheptya Bhitra as the latter doesn’t have a twisted tail tip. Similarly, Mastani cannot be called Gabru Jawan, nor can Mastikhor be named Big Daddy.
Nikit Surve, from the Wildlife Institute of India, who carried out a detailed study, said that it took officials a month to finalise the names. The leopards were identified using camera traps.
Park officials have now come out with a 25-page book with individual names and the reasons for so naming them. It also details SGNP as well as ‘Living with Leopards’ and measures to avoid. Of the 35 leopards, there are 9 males and 17 females. The others are categorised as ‘gender unknown’.
One of the objectives was to promote conservation and build interest about these cats in the urban wilderness of Mumbai, said Vikas Gupta, chief conservator of forest (CCF) and field director of SGNP.
It was in June this year that SGNP released a report titled ‘Ecology of leopards in SGNP with special reference to its abundance, prey selection and food habits’ by Surve. He carried out a detailed study and laid camera traps between December 2014 and April this year.
“While shuffling through photographs, certain unique characteristics and habits of each individual were noticed. It was then decided to give them individual names based on those characteristics,” said Gupta.
“We saw the biggest male leopard walking boldly in front of the camera and the name we thought was Gabru Jawan. Similarly, we called a female Mastani as she was with another leopard, whom we named Mastikhor as he would hit the camera and even fool around with it when he was accompanying Mastani,” said Surve.
Interestingly, two females posed a challenge for the officials for a long time. Their coat patterns were almost similar and they took them to be the same leopard. After a close examination of their rosette, officials realised that they are two different leopards and named them Changu and Mangu.
Naming big cats is nothing new. Tigers across every reserve in India have been given names that attract tourists. Tadoba’s famous tiger is Gabbar, while the most famous tigress of Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan is Machali. However, this is for the first time, at least in Maharashtra, the task of naming wild leopards has been taken up.
So, who is SGNP’s favourite? It’s Rose. “This female has a beautiful rosette pattern on the centre of its left flank and we decided to name her Rose,” said Surve.
Did someone say a leopard by any other name is still a leopard? Reply