Beside leopards, there were at least three cases of bear poaching, as officials seized three gallbladders of Himalayan bears from Rudraprayag in Uttarakhand on Sunday evening.

"Our team seized four leopard skins and three gallbladders of Himalayan black or brown bears in Rudraprayag. This is the fifth gallbladder seizure in the last one year and fifth leopard skin seizure in the last four months," ShekharNiraj, Head of TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring network in alliance with the World Wide Fund for Nature, told IANS.

Leopards are among the top poached animals in India, with at least 210 confirmed deaths (poaching, seizures and mortality) so far this year, while 436 died in 2016.

BesideRudraprayag, over the weekend, two leopards were wire-trapped and poached in separate incidents in Uttarakhand (Tehri district) and Kerala. One leopard skin along with bones was seized in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal and one disfigured leopard corpse was found in Kanker district, Chhattisgarh.

Meanwhile, with increasing demand, the trade of bear's gallbladder used in traditional Chinese medicines (TCM), the cases of poaching are coming forward. The poachers often hunt the bears through different snares, including the explosives, and either hide the carcasses in the forest or cut them open there and take away the bladder.

"On March 10, four gallbladders were seized from Nanda Devi National Park, while two were seized on April 17 from Dehradun," Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) Programme Manager Tito Joseph told IANS.

According to experts, with all focus and funds for the tigers, leopards are becoming prime target of the poachers. The leopards' organs are also seen as an alternative for the tigers, with wide use in TCM.

"There is huge gap in conservation status... forest departments don't have enough resources and the need of the hour is to bring the paramilitary forces into conservation efforts. There's no programme in India on leopard conservation," ShekharNiraj said.

Speaking of the "misconception" among the top public agencies, like Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), that high-altitude regions are protected, Niraj believes that such areas like Uttarakhand are more vulnerable because they are close to the borders and thus to the international market.

"Leopards are being neglected a lot... This is also the time to save many other iconic species like bear, snow leopard and musk deer. The more serious question is: will leopard go extinct before tiger in India?" Shekhar said.

According to 2016 records, there are around 7,000 leopards in the wild, but due to lack of devices like dedicated camera traps, the accurate figures are not known.

In 2016, at least 436 leopards died in India, out of which at least 50 died in road accidents and at least 154 were confirmed poached -- a record in the last 10 years.