14 DAY TRIAL // A recent report looking into how poaching is affecting India's leopard population states that as many as four such big cats are killed by poachers in this part of the world on a weekly basis.
Once one starts adding up, the figures become ever more mind-boggling: if estimates are correct, roughly 3,000 leopards were killed in this country alone within the years 2001 and 2010.
Sources report that poachers hunt down and kill these animals in order to sell various parts of their bodies on the illegal market, and that most of the people who act as customers for this illegal market come from Myanmar, Laos, and Tibet.
Although leopards are presently regarded as a nearly threatened species, odds are that, should things continue to unfold in this manner, they will soon become an endangered one.