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Showing posts from August, 2024

Jhalana Leopard Reserve - The Urban Forest

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 Imagine living in a crowded city of 4.3 million people and learning that amidst all of this human world, huge buildings and maddening crowd, lies a small, happy, peaceful forest where wild leopards rule. Urban dwellers who may have heard about leopards but rarely come across one would find this hard to believe.  There does exist a place such as this, right within Jaipur, the capital city of the state of Rajasthan in Western India. Extending over 7.7 square miles, the Jhalana Leopard Reserve is Home to flora and fauna of great variety. However its most famous denizens are its leopards. Over the years, the forest and the leopards and other biodiversity withstood the pressure of rapid urbanization and population growth, yet have been able to flourish here. To have a forest like that in one of the more populous cities is truly marvelous and a great story about conservation.  The revival of Jhalana's ecosystem health has also been a blessing for the resident and migratory bir...