Whereas instigated emotions and public hysteria are responsible for some leopards being termed as man-eaters and being killed by villagers in remote mountainous regions, the major reason for increase in occurrence of leopard-human conflict is the drastic decrease in natural prey of the feline due to rampant poaching.

According to environmentalists active in this region since the past decades, even in the Terai region where forest terrain is comparatively more accessible and convenient for patrolling by guards of the Forest Department, the authorities have totally failed to prevent the rampant poaching of wildlife especially of hooved animals for poached bush meat allegedly sold in tourist resorts on demand or consumed by the poachers in any of the several villages surround the protected forest areas.

In the mountainous region where difficult terrain decreases the strength of foot patrolling by Forest Department guards, the animals which constitute the prey base of leopards have been poached to drastically low numbers. The existing numbers of deers, mountain goats, jungle fowls and other mountain wildlife which the leopards prey on are uncertain but alarmingly low enough to force frequent change of home range for the felines which are forced to wander greater areas in search for food and often end up killing domesticated animals in human settlements they come across.

While the public and hired shooters are too eager to shoot leopard branded as man-eaters without proven record of having killed and eaten humans, the authorities have continued to ignore the alarming repercussion of poaching decimating wildlife in the mountains which has deprived the leopard of its natural prey base.