The Indian Leopard (Panthera Pardusfusca) is a leopard subspecies widely distributed on the Indian subcontinent. This species is listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red list because populations have declined following habitat loss and fragmentations , poaching for the illegal trade of skins and body parts and persecution due to conflict situations. The Indian Leopard is one of the big cats occurring on the Indian subcontinent apart from the Asiatic lion , Bengal tiger, Snow leopard and clouded leopard. The Indian Leopard has strong legs and a long well formed tail, broad muzzle, short ears and small yellowish grey eyes, light grey ocular bulbs. It's coat is spotted and rosetted on a pale yellow to yellowish brown or golden background, except for the melanistic forms, the spots fade towards the white under belly and the insides and lower parts of the legs. 
Rosetters are most prominent on the back, flanks and hindquarters. The pattern of the rosetters is unique to each individuals. The white tipped tail is 60 to 100 cms long white underneath and displays rosetters which form incomplete bands towards the end. Male Indian leopards grow to between 127 cms to 142 cms in body size with 76 cms to 91 cms long tail and weight between 50 to 77 kgs.
Female are smaller having length between 104 cms to 117 cms with a 76 cms to 87. 6 cms long tail with a weight between 29 and 34 kgs. Leopards are powerful swimmer although is not as disposed to swimming as the tiger and can run at over 58 kms per hour.
Indian leopards are not common in habitats where tiger density is high and are wedged between prime tiger habitat on the one side and cultivated village land on the other.
In our West Bengal, leopards are widely distributed in the forests , fringe tea gardens and fringe villages of North Bengal. Leopards in North Bengal may be broadly divided into two major groups e.g forest dwelling and tea garden dwelling. The leopard population in West Bengal is confined to only three districts of North Bengal i.e Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Coochbihar which lies at the foothills of the great Himalayas. It is estimated that more than 4000 leopards inhabitat the of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar that is dotted with 285 tea gardens and large swatches of forest , national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and tiger reserves. Leopards of North Bengal may be broadly divided into two major groups e.g forest dwelling and tea garden dwelling. The tarai region is a belt of grasslands , forests and conversion of forest land to army cantonments , diversion of forest land for railway tracks and highways etc . The development of area with rapid increase in the human population has seen increases the conflicts between humans and leopards.
Closed tea gardens are ideal breeding grounds for leopards. They get enough concealed space to raise their cubs and do not have to face competition from other predators like forests . Several closed tea gardens of North Bengal have been witnessing increasing attacks by leopards for the last couple of years.
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