The information should gladden the hearts of wildlife enthusiasts as it establishes nearly four-fold increase in the population of big cat in the 126 sq km forest area since 2012, when a similar exercise put the number of leopards in the region as eight. The two-year study by WII surveyors used both modern and traditional methods to spot and count the wildlife for accuracy.

"The counting report is based on camera trapping at 12 places besides detection through pug marks, craps and territorial jurisdictions," Shyam Sundar Kaushik, the divisional forest officer, told Mail Today.

Kaushik pointed out the increase in the number of human-animal conflicts in the area of late, and stressed the need for protection of wildlife habitat in the Aravalli range. The team of surveyors from WII, Dehradun, in its report submitted to the state forest department, also called for the need to guard natural water bodies and increase the green cover to allow the wildlife to prosper.

Explaining the complex study, Kaushik said the WII researchers surveyed 51 places with minimum and maximum trial length of two and six km at one site. "Sophisticated cameras were placed at 12 spots which sighted four leopards at Mangar, two each at Bandhwari and Wazirabad, and one each at Bhondsi, Gotra and Anangpur," he said.

Besides leopards, jackals and hyenas, the WII team recorded presence of 91 porcupines, 26 jungle cats, 61 civets, four foxes, three wolves and two rhesus macaques. The 2012 report conducted on the Aravalli landscape in the state had counted eight leopards, 129 jackals, 46 Jungle cats, 17 hyenas, five porcupines, two mongoose and two foxes.

The WII also sighted about 167 Nilgai (blue bulls) at 37 points, 14 chinkara at seven spots, 75 grey francolins at 34 points and 23 peafowl at 11 spots.

The report said that leopard habitat was estimated to be spread around 200 sq km while hyena's in 643 sqkm, primarily in Gurugram and Faridabad districts in areas such as Ghamroj, Bhondsi, Raisina, Mangar, Gothda, Badkhal, Kotla, Kansali, Nimatpur, Khol, and Panchota.

After several incidents of leopard deaths and poaching were reported, especially in Gurugram and Faridabad, Haryana forest department had commissioned the study in mid-2015 to WII.

Forest officials said the encouraging signs are bound to bring up the demand for declaring the Aravalli range as protected zone or reserve sanctuary to restrict encroachments and construction activities around the habitat.

Forest department figures state that in the last three years, at least eight leopards either died in road accidents or were killed by villagers. There have been several cases of leopards straying into villages across the range of late.

"Since, there are two major highways running across the Aravalli region, namely NH 8 and Gurugram-Faridabad expressway, there is an urgent need to make underground tunnels to prevent accidents," Kaushik said. He said the WII report submitted to Haryana forest department recommended the same.

Since December 2016, the wildlife department has managed to rescue three leopards from Mewat (December 2016), Palwal (February 2017), and Sohna town (April 2017).

In January 2014, four carcasses of leopards found at a private golf course while two leopard cubs were found dead in Gairatpur in May 2016 and Bhondsi village in Gurugram on September 2016.