Count the Spots

Jaipur is now referred to as the Leopard Capital of India, with good reason!

Jaipur is a bustling city of 4 million, unique for many reasons including the ring of reasonably well forested Aravali mountains that surround the city. Over time these mountains that once stood around the city have been in turn surrounded by the city itself! The mountains however survive and hide secrets in their valleys and ridge tops. Secrets of an incredibly rich and varied life.

One such range is the Jhalana Mountains, which lie quite close to the airport. Now protected as a nature reserve, this forest is open to tourists in the form of Jeep Safaris.

The forest has a lot of bird species, reptiles like the monitor lizard, cobra, wolf snake and so on. It has a large population of peacocks, monkeys, a sizable population of nilgai or blue bull, chital, sambhar and other small animals including hyena, jungle cat, civet etc.

But the real reason for its popularity is – a big cat! The leopard.