Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 14 December 2020 | 12(16): 17173–17193
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6477.12.16.17173-17193
#6477 | Received 27 July 2020 | Final
received 15 September 2020 | Finally accepted 09 November 2020
Historical
and current extent of occurrence of the Caracal Caracal caracal (Schreber,
1776) (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) in India
Dharmendra Khandal
1, Ishan Dhar 2 & Goddilla Viswanatha Reddy 3
1,2 Tiger
Watch, Maa Farm, Ranthambhore Road, Sawai Madhopur 322001, Rajasthan, India.
3 Rajasthan
Forest Department, Aranya Bhavan, Jhalana Doongri, Jaipur 302004, Rajasthan,
India.
1 dharmkhandal@gmail.com,
2 dhar.ishan@gmail.com (corresponding author), 3 gvreddy.rajforests@gmail.com
Editors:
Angie Appel, Wild Cat Network, Bad Marienberg, Germany and Date of publication: 14
December 2020 (online & print)
Shomita Mukherjee, Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology
and Natural History (SACON), Coimbatore, India.
Citation:
Khandal, D., I. Dhar
& G.V. Reddy (2020). Historical and current extent of occurrence of the
Caracal Caracal caracal (Schreber, 1776) (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae)
in India. Journal of Threatened Taxa
12(16): 17173–17193.
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6477.12.16.17173-17193
Copyright:
© Khandal et al. 2020.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows
unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium
by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Author
details: Dharmandra Khandal,
Ph.D. has served as conservation biologist with Tiger Watch since 2003. His
work with Tiger Watch has involved groundbreaking initiatives in proactive
anti-poaching, the monitoring of wildlife & research. He has also forged
new frontiers in the world of community based conservation in the Ranthambhore
Tiger Reserve. Ishan Dhar became
associated with Tiger Watch when the Village Wildlife Volunteer Program
commenced in 2015 and has been an active participant in Tiger Watch
conservation interventions ever since. He has served on Tiger Watch’s Board of
Directors since 2017.He has co-authored a book on the Village Wildlife
Volunteer program titled Wildlife Warriors. G.V.
Reddy, Ph.D., PCCF (Retd.) retired as Head of Forest Forces in the
Rajasthan Forest Department in October 2020. He has previously served as DCF,
Ranthambhore National Park where his interventions saw the revival of tiger
populations and he was also the only forest officer to accompany US President
Bill Clinton in the National Park in 1999. He has also served on deputation to
the Aceh Forest and Environmental Project in Indonesia.
Author
contribution: Dharmendra Khandal—collation of reports,
provision of photographs and preparation of text and maps. Ishan Dhar—collation
of reports and preparation of text. G.V. Reddy—provision of reports,
preparation of text and maps.
Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to the following persons for
generously providing meticulously documented reports of the Caracal in India:
Aditya Singh, Adesh Shivkar, Balendu Singh, Bijo Joy, Bharat Singh, Gurmit
Singh, H.S. Pabla, Harshvardhan Singh Mahechha, Jagat Sinh Sodha, Jugal Tiwari,
K. Rungta, L.K. Chaudhary, Mahijit Singh, Margarita Steinhardt, Manoj Parashar,
Nagendra Singh Johjawar, Pankaj N. Joshi, Raghunandan S. Chundawat, Raj
Chauhan, Rahul Bhatnagar, Salim Ali, Sharad Agarwal, Sunil Sarkar, Subhas
Sharma, Sudarshan Sharma, Sujan Bhai Raibari, Soonoo Taraporewala, Shivbhadra
Sinh, Shyamendra Singh, Yogendra Shah, and Dinesh Sharma. We specially thank
the following individuals for their tireless assistance throughout the
preparation of this article and for providing their documented reports of the
Caracal in India: Valmik Thapar, Divyabhanusinh Chavda for his guidance with historic
literature, Harshvardhan, Asad Rahmani, M.K. Ranjitsinh, Y.K. Sahu, Jaisal
Singh & Anjali Singh, Yusuf Ansari,Nirav Bhatt, Vikram Sinh Sodha,
Harimohan Gurjar for their records and assistance, Wheeler Thackston for his
translations of the Persian manuscript of the Jahangirnama, Sonia Mondal for
accessing specimen reports at the ZSI, Satish Sharma for procuring numerous
reports throughout Rajasthan, Ravindra Singh Tomar, & Sameer Bajaru for
accessing specimens in the collection of the Bombay Natural History Society
museum, Y.V. Jhala, Meenu Dhakad, & Praveen Kumar for preparing maps,
Giriraj Singh Kushwaha, Gobind Sagar Bhardwaj, Bharat Jethva, Deepak Goswami,
& Ashok Chaudhary, the Rajasthan Forest Department, and the Village
Wildlife Volunteers of Tiger Watch Ranthambhore. We thank three anonymous
reviewers, Shomita Mukherjee and Angie Appel for constructive comments on the
manuscript and suggesting crucial changes.
Abstract: This article focuses
on the historical and current extent of occurrence of the Caracal Caracal
Caracal in India between 1616 and April 2020. We collated 134 reports during this
period. Historically, the Caracal was
reported in 13 Indian states in nine out of 26 biotic provinces. Since 2001, the Caracal’s presence has been
reported in only three states and four biotic provinces, with only two possible
viable populations. Before 1947, the
Caracal was reported from an area of 793,927km2. Between 1948 and 2000, the Caracal’s reported
extent of occurrence in India decreased by 47.99%. From 2001 to 2020, the reported extent of
occurrence further decreased by 95.95%, with current presence restricted to
16,709km2, less than 5% of the Caracal’s reported extent of occurrence in the
1948–2000 period.
Keywords: Camera trapping,
habitat reduction, historical reports, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,
small wild cat.
Introduction
The Caracal Caracal caracal is among the most
widespread of small wild cats, distributed across at least 20 million km2 including 42 African and 18 Asian
countries (Avgan et al. 2016). The
oldest report of the Caracal in the Indian subcontinent is a fossil from the
Indus Valley Civilization dating to 3000–2000 BCE (Ghosh 1982). In Asia, the Caracal’s historical range
overlaps with small ungulate species such as Blackbuck Antilope cervicapra
in India (Sunquist & Sunquist 2002) and Chinkara Gazella bennettii
in Iran and India (Sunquist & Sunquist 2002; Farhadinia et al. 2007;
Ghoddousi et al. 2009; Moqanaki et al. 2016).
The Caracal is known to inhabit the drier parts of India (Kitchener
1991; Corbett & Hill 1992; Nowell & Jackson 1996). Knowledge of its conservation status, however,
is largely outdated, especially for the Asian populations (Moqanaki et al.
2016).
The Caracal has a long and unique history with humans in
Asia where it was valued for its litheness and ability to catch birds in flight
(Vigne 1842; Lydekker 1907; Sunquist & Sunquist 2002). The Caracal’s iconic large black ears with
long tufts of hair at the tips are emphasized in its name, which originates in
the Turkish word ‘Karakulak’, meaning ‘Black Ear’ (Buffon 1761). In India, it is vernacularly known as ‘Siya
Gosh’, a Persian name meaning ’Black Ear’ (Harting 1883). A Sanskrit fable accounts of a small wild cat
named Dirgha-karan or ‘long-eared’ preying on a bird’s chicks (Capeller
1891; Arnold 1893). This cat might be a
Caracal. The Sanskrit name ‘sas-karan’
meaning ‘rabbit-like ears’ was proposed by Vira et al. (1953) in an attempt to
establish a Sanskrit nomenclature for the fauna of India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka
following the Linnaean system of classification.
In India, the Caracal was used as a coursing animal
during the period of the Delhi Sultanate in the late medieval period
(Divyabhanusinh 1993; Verma 1994; Thapar et al. 2013). In the 14th
Century, Firuz Shah Tughlaq was thought to have established a provision called
‘Siyah-Goshdar Khana’ solely dedicated to the maintenance of large
numbers of coursing Caracal (Verma 1994).
The Third Mughal Emperor Akbar furthered the reputation of the Caracal
as a coursing animal and used it extensively for coursing (Blochmann 1873). It was also represented in illustrated
simplified Persian adaptations of texts sourced from Sanskrit, Turkic and
Arabic literature such as Anvar-i-Suhayli, Tutinama, as well as Persian poetry
and epics such as Khamsa-e-Nizami and Shahnameh (Maurice 1953), which are full
of wildlife fables. The Caracal’s
historical use as a coursing animal might have taken it far beyond its natural
range in places like the Ladakh region in the Himalaya (Pocock 1939) along with
Calcutta in West Bengal (Brandon-Jones 1997).
The Caracal in India has been considered rare in the wild
since at least 1671 (Foster 1924, 1926), and several naturalists commented on
its rarity (Hamilton 1727; Blyth 1842; Stoliczka 1872; Jerdon 1874; O’Malley
1909; Allen 1919; Sharma & Sankhala 1984a).
We think that its rarity may be explained by the economic development of
India. The country is primarily an
agrarian economy, with 70% of the human population living in rural areas (Chand
et al. 2017). In the 20th
Century alone, India’s human population grew six-fold, which along with economic
growth resulted in the total forest area decreasing from 1,000,000–810,000 km2
(Tian et al. 2014). Agricultural land in
India increased from 1,000,000–1,200,000 km2 between 1880 and 1950
(Tian et al. 2014). Approximately,
200,000km2 of grassland and shrub land, along with 260,000km2
of forests are estimated to have been converted for agricultural use from 1880
to 2010 (Vanak et al. 2017).
Landscapes in India have significantly been transformed
by such anthropogenic factors. Against
the backdrop of these large-scale changes, we consider it important to examine
the change in the extent of occurrence of the Caracal in India. The prevalence of coursing Caracal
historically along with the seemingly elusive behaviour of wild Caracal makes
this a challenging endeavour.
We collated all credible reports of the Caracal in India
from the beginning of recorded history until April 2020, mapped its historical
range and assessed changes in its present extent of occurrence.
Study
area
Historical sites with Caracal reports were spread across
northwestern and central India to the states of Jharkand and Odisha in the
east. This region contains four
biogeographic zones with 10 biotic provinces (Table 1; Rodgers et al. 2002). The climate in this region is dominated by
the south-west Asian monsoon with rain falling in the months of June to
September (Prakash et al. 2015). During
this season, the mean annual rainfall varies from 100–500 mm in the Thar Desert
(Roy & Singhvi 2016) and increases eastwards to over 1,300mm (Prakash et
al. 2015). Mean annual temperatures
range from 3–10°C in the cold season to 45–50°C in the hot season (Roy &
Singhvi 2016). It also must be stated that the international border between
India and Pakistan passes through the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, and
Punjab. Permanent fencing began in the
1980s and has now almost been completed (Gupta 2018). Thus, while the border was not always an
obstacle for the movement of wildlife, it has certainly evolved into a
substantial obstacle.
Camera trapping was conducted in the peripheries of
Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve and National Chambal Sanctuary, in Sawai Madhopur
District and Dholpur Reserve Forest, all located in Rajasthan.
Material and methods
Survey
on literature, specimens in collections and interviews
We searched for literature about wild Caracal in India
from the start of recorded history to 2020 including the writings of credible
authors such as naturalists, zoologists, natural historians, historians, forest
officers, gazetteers, chroniclers, erstwhile royalty, and army officers. Literature was sourced online and in the
libraries of the India International Centre, Maharaja Fatehsinghrao Gaekwad
Library at the WWF-India secretariat and at the Indira Gandhi National Centre
for the Arts, all in New Delhi; and in the library of University of Rajasthan
in Jaipur. Literature was also provided by Valmik Thapar, Divyabhanusinh
Chavda, and Satish Sharma.
We examined Caracal specimens deposited at the Bombay
Natural History Society (BNHS),
Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), the Natural History Museum in London,
private trophy collections in India, and other museums. We also conducted open-ended interviews with
forest officers and biologists who observed the Caracal in the field and people
who provided photographs.
We assessed the reliability of the information obtained
and categorized reports into:
confirmed reports
based on tangible evidence like photographs, specimens including animal
carcasses or body parts that can be accessed currently;
confirmed reports
based on direct sightings of live or dead individuals, specimens submitted to
museums that are no longer accessible or missing, photographic reports that are
no longer accessible, destroyed or missing;
confirmed reports
that indicate Caracal occurrence through species specific information which
includes species description and the provision of distinct vernacular names;
unconfirmed or
questionable reports without any accompanying description, photos or erroneous
description.
Reports of captive or coursing
Caracal are strictly not included as their wild origins are unknown unless
explicitly stated.
Camera
trapping
Regular camera trapping using Cuddeback X-ChangeTM 1279
models was carried out in selected sites on the peripheries of Ranthambhore
Tiger Reserve by the NGO Tiger Watch Ranthambhore and Rajasthan Forest
Department under the Village Wildlife Volunteer Program since 2015 (Dhar &
Dhakad 2018; Parashar 2020). Camera trapping is carried out each year by
trained villagers for monitoring Tiger Panthera tigris and other
wildlife outside the protected area. The
average distance between camera traps is 2km, which we consider as one single
complex. The camera traps are placed on
forest paths, human trails and dry riverbeds where the opportunity to report
wildlife was considered optimal. Camera
traps were placed at a height of 45–47 cm above ground and were usually mounted
on trees or tree stumps on one side of trails.
Geo-coordinates of these locations were determined using Garmin GPS
eTrex 10. Trained village wildlife
volunteers checked the camera traps daily.
Due to the movement of people, camera traps are deployed from 17.00h to
07.00h, making most of the detections nocturnal. In December 2015, 10 cameras were operational
with 310 camera trap nights. Between 2016
and April 2020, 50 camera traps were active in various locations throughout the
year, resulting in a total of 79,310 camera trap nights. Camera traps are fixed at 30 locations, while
additional camera traps are deployed when required for situations like a Tiger
moving out of the protected area or at the request of the Rajasthan Forest
Department.
Extent
of occurrence maps
To account for international boundary changes that have
occurred in the region, we sorted the collated information into three
categories. The first category entails
all reports from undivided India until 1947.
The second category excludes Pakistan and entails reports from 1948 to
2000. Both categories are considered
historical reports. The third category
comprises contemporary reports from 2001 to April 2020, a time period when
camera trapping and photography of wildlife became more common and resulted in
the availability of authentic information.
Coordinates of each report were plotted using ARC GIS
10.3 where possible. If it was not
possible to determine coordinates, then the centre of the province, principality
or state was plotted. We visited all
locations in the third category to gather data on habitat types and water
sources. The geotagged locations were
used to build extent of occurrence maps in QGIS 3.12 Bucuresti version and are
also shown on a map of the Biogeographic Classification of India by Rodgers et
al. (2002).
The outermost geotagged locations on the map were
connected to plot a minimum convex polygon.
More than 50 locations in a protected area (PA) are comprised in a
single polygon, so that the entire PA formed one geotagged polygon on the map
and is represented by digits on both the table and the map. Multiple locations within the polygon are
represented by Roman numerals in tables.
Geotagged locations outside PAs in the same district were marked
separately on the maps.
Results
Historical
reports until 2000
We found a total of 89 reports of the Caracal from 1616
to 2000 during our literature review, including 36 reports until 1947 (Table 2;
Figure 1) and 53 reports from 1948 until 2000 (Table 3; Figure 2). These reports are from 13 states, viz
Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi,
Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. In five regions, exact locations were unclear
for the period before 1947 so that we used geographic centres including
locations in Kutch, Gujarat (Stoliczka 1872), Chutia (Chota) Nagpur
Division (Ball 1874), Kathiawar, Gujarat (Rice 1884), Northern Circars (Jerdon
1874) and South Punjab (Rose et al. 1908).
Historical reports of the Caracal from 1616 to 1947
extend over an area of 839,398km2 (Figure 1), including an area of
45,471km2 in Pakistan. If we subtract the area in Pakistan, the area
within India’s current borders extends over 793,927km2. Reports from1948 to 2000 extend over an area
of 412,877km2 (Figure 2).
Caracal
specimens in collections
We found 13 Caracal specimens in collections (Table
4). Six of these specimens are known to
have originated in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. While the Bombay Natural History Society
(BNHS) had eight Caracal specimens in its collection from 1888 to 1907, only
two of them remain today (Curator, BNHS in. litt. 2019).
Records
from 2001 onwards
We obtained authentic Caracal records between 2001 and
2020 in Rajasthan (Table 5), Gujarat (Table 6) and Madhya Pradesh (Table
7). These records are mapped in Figure
3.
a. The Caracal in Rajasthan: All
districts with Caracal records in Rajasthan are located in the Aravalli Hill
range or the Vindhyan Hill range, except one in Bharatpur. The eastern and southern parts of Rajasthan
are bounded by the Vindhyan Hill range.
The Caracal was reported in 10 districts, viz, Sawai Madhopur, Karauli,
Dholpur, Bharatpur, Alwar, Chittorgarh, Pratapgarh, Udaipur, Pali, and
Rajsamand (Figure 3). Photographs were
obtained in the districts of Sawai Madhopur, Karauli, Dholpur, Bharatpur, and
Alwar. Outside PAs, the Caracal was
reported in the districts of Sawai Madhopur, Dholpur, Udaipur, Alwar, and
Pratapgarh, with most reports in Udaipur District (Figure 3).
The village wildlife volunteers obtained 176 camera trap
pictures of the Caracal between 2015 and April 2020 at 23 locations, clubbed
into six different areas in and around Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve (Table 5).
b. The Caracal in Gujarat: We
found 19 reports of the Caracal in the state of Gujarat, all in the Kutch
District. Nine of these reports are authenticated by photographs (Table 6).
c. The Caracal in Madhya Pradesh: We
traced three Caracal reports in Madhya Pradesh at two locations (Table 7). Since none of these reports are supported by
photographic evidence, they are category
accounts.
Discussion
Our collation of literature revealed that knowledge of
the Caracal’s presence in India until the end of the 19th century
was based on just 17 locality reports.
The locations of these reports are scattered over the states of
Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Jharkhand, and
Chhattisgarh. It is possible that the
rarity of reports was the reason for early naturalists assuming that the
Caracal is rare in India. The Caracal’s
historic range in India is very putative, as many reports are not supported by
photographic evidence and can, therefore, neither be corroborated nor used to
draw inferences. Although Jerdon (1874)
reported to have obtained specimens in Odisha and northern Andhra Pradesh, Blanford
(1888–91) and Lydekker (1907) assumed that its presence is limited to
northwestern and central India.
Examination of literature on rock painting sites in Rajasthan, Gujarat,
Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh revealed no clues on the Caracal, and
hence there is no pre-historic report (Chakravarty & Bednarik 1997;
Wakankar 2005, 2008; Saleem 2014; Sharma 2014; Gupta 2019).
Reports of the Caracal until the end of the 20th
Century increased four-fold, indicating that the extent of the Caracal’s
occurrence putatively stretched over an area of 1,040,598km2 in 13 states and nine biotic provinces. After
2001, its presence has been documented in just three states until April 2020.
According to Mukherjee (1998), the Caracal occurred in
five biotic provinces in India, viz, 3A: Thar Desert, 3B: Kutch Desert, 4B:
Semi-arid Gujarat Rajputana, 6A: Central Highlands and 6D: Central Plateau of
the Deccan Peninsula. From our collation
of reports starting in 1616, the Caracal was reported from four more biotic
provinces in addition to those listed by Mukherjee (1998). These are 4A: Semi-arid Punjab Plains, 7A:
Upper Gangetic Plain, 6B: Chotta Nagpur and 6C: Eastern Highlands in the Deccan
Peninsula.
Authenticated reports supported by specimens and photographs
are from 4B: Semi-arid Gujarat Rajputana, 4A: Semi-arid Punjab Plains, 3B:
Kutch Desert and 6A: Deccan Peninsula Central Highlands. As many of the historical records are without
specimens or photographs, mistaken identification with the Jungle Cat is
possible. Such misidentifications are
common even today, with some faulty reports being perpetuated only because they
are published, e.g., Gogate (1998).
Unconfirmed
records of the Caracal
We found 33 reports that we categorised as unconfirmed.
Two originate in the Ladakh region of Jammu &
Kashmir. The first is based on a drawing
of a captive Caracal in Baltistan (Blyth 1842), and the second on a skin seen
in a Srinagar shop by Ward (1923).
Stockley (1928) and Pocock (1939) held the view that neither one is
evidence for the Caracal’s occurrence in the erstwhile state.
Ward (1923) also accounted of shooting a Caracal in
western Dun, Uttarakhand. In a map
showing the extent of occurrence of the Felidae in the western Himalaya, Sinha
(1995) included the Caracal in Dehradun without providing any related
information. This location matches with
the account by Ward (1923). In view of
Ward’s earlier claim from Ladakh, we doubt the credibility of this account.
The British army officer Osborn claimed that a Caracal
was sighted in the Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh in 1904 (Government of
Punjab 1904; Dodsworth 1913). A
purported specimen was submitted by Osborn to the museum of the BNHS in 1907
(Bell 1907). Considering that Osborn
provided neither details of the sighting nor of the submitted specimen, it is
possible that this could have occurred in an area either in or bordering modern
day Punjab.
Two publications refer to the rarity of the Caracal in
the erstwhile Madras Presidency.
McMaster (1871) accounted of a Caracal presented by the Rajah of
Karvetinagar to the people’s park of Madras in September 1868, but did not
clarify from where the Caracal originated.
Thurston (1913) wrote that the Caracal or Red Lynx had become rare, but
without providing information whether and where it was ever sighted or hunted
in the region.
Briggs (1861) wrote about the presence of the Caracal in
Surroo Nagar, currently in Telangana, but merely mentioned Lynx along with a
host of other wildlife. The word ‘Lynx’
was at times also used for the Jungle Cat. Briggs (1861) neither provided a
description nor information about a sighting.
Behura & Guru (1969) reported the occurrence of the
Caracal in Mayurbhanj District on the basis of a newspaper article dating to 18
April 1962 (Acharjyo 1998). This report
was further included in a ZSI publication by Das et al. (1993). Acharjyo (1998), however, conceded that no
other reports of its occurrence in the state were known at the time, nor
had the Nandankanan Zoo received a wild-caught individual from any part of
Odisha.
Two reports of Caracals around the Ludhiana area of
Punjab in 1977–79 are unconfirmed (Gurmit Singh pers. comm. 2019).
Parihar (1989) reported seeing a Caracal on the night of
16 March 1987 aided by a searchlight in the forests of Panna District in Madhya
Pradesh. He acknowledged that the Jungle
Cat is common there, but was certain that he saw the front and rear of a
Caracal, although he “could not see the ear tuft” and described the tip of the
tail being about 10cm long and darker than the rest of the tail. This description raises doubts, as Caracal
tail length in India has been reported ranging from 17.5 to 29.9 cm (Blyth
1842; Jerdon 1874; Sterndale 1884; Allen 1919; Ward 1923; Prater 1948;
Dharmendra Khandal pers. obs. 2019; Sonia Mondal in. litt. 2019). The tip of the tail measures approximately
1–2 cm with hair that is darker than the rest of the tail, but such hair is not
present on the tails of all Caracals (Dharmendra Khandal pers. obs. 2019).
Parihar (1989) accounted of Ajit Sonakia, then Director
of Sanjay National Park having seen a Caracal near Raisen while driving at
night from Bhopal to Sagar in Madhya Pradesh.
Since this is not a first-person account and lacking specific details,
it remains unconfirmed.
Desai (1974) included the Caracal in the list of animals
in Gir National Park, and Singh (1998) claimed a sighting of a Caracal in tall
grass in Saurashtra, Gujarat. Evidence
of occurrence in both areas does not exist, despite regular camera trapping
surveys today, and so we consider both reports unconfirmed. Chakraborty & Agarwal (2000) referred to
10 individual Caracals in Narayan Sarovar Chinkara Sanctuary listed in a report
by Forest Department of Gujarat. This
report is based on the annual waterhole census method for wild animals, which
has serious limitations (Karanth & Ramaswamy 2006).
Two separate Caracal sightings were reported in the
Dhakana and Gatang ranges of Melghat Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra (Gogate
1998). These were later proven to be
Jungle Cats upon examination of photographic evidence (Shomita Mukherjee pers.
comm. 2020).
Singh & Soni (1999) mentioned the presence of the
Caracal in the salt pans of Wild Ass Sanctuary located in Little Rann of Kutch,
Gujarat, based on local people’s accounts.
Singh & Soni (1999), however, stated to not have sighted a Caracal
themselves. It must be added that the
salt pans are a highly improbable habitat for the Caracal.
Kolipaka (2011) listed 11 sightings of the Caracal across
India along with their purported GPS coordinates. The sources of these reports are not
provided. Nine of the reports are
verifiably non-specific. The errors in
the locations listed and associated coordinates provided are significant, such
as two different locations being presented as one, e.g., “Ranthambhore &
Sariska” and “Sasaipura, Bhind”.
These errors make it impossible to verify the alleged sightings.
In 2015, whilst conducting a field survey in the Bagpat
Reserve in the taluka of Nakhatrana in Kutch to assess the “Status and
Distribution of Caracal in Gujarat”, a team from the Gujarat Institute of
Desert Ecology (GUIDE) claimed to have sighted a Caracal hiding 70–75 m away in
a bush. The animal escaped before it
could be photographed. The team,
however, claimed that the animal left ‘clear pugmarks for our confirmation’ and
provided a photograph of the pugmark with a pen placed next to it for size
reference. They also surveyed the area
for 10 more days but could not find the animal (Joshi et al. 2015). The length of the pen appeared to be 12–13 cm
long, the average length of a pen. By
comparison, the pugmark appeared to be 8–9 cm long, which is far too large for
a Caracal. In an earlier update on the
same survey, GUIDE provided the lengths of the right front pugmark and the
right hind pugmark of a Caracal, presumably obtained in their survey, and these
measured 4.7cm and 5.5cm respectively (Asrari et al. 2013-14). Skinner & Chimimba (2005) provide 5cm as
the upper limit for the lengths of the right fore footprint and right hind
footprint for southern African Caracals.
We are, thus, of the opinion that the pugmark report is erroneous, and
that the pugmark photographed was that of a Leopard.
Kazmi (2020) interpreted Sterndale (1884) to have
reported “raising a young Caracal cub he had caught from the wild” in
Seoni, Madhya Pradesh. In fact,
Sterndale (1884) merely wrote that “They are easily tamed. I had a young one at Seonee and the natives
of some parts are said to train them for sporting purposes in the manner in
which the hunting leopard (read Cheetah) is trained”. He did not explicitly state that this cub was
‘caught from the wild’ in Seoni itself.
We are, therefore, of the opinion that the information by Sterndale (1884)
is insufficient to draw a conclusion of the cub’s origin.
Contemporary
reports
Since 2001, the Caracal was reported in only four biotic
provinces, namely 3B: Kutch Desert, 4B: Semi-arid Gujarat Rajputana, 4A:
Semi-arid Punjab Plains, and 6A: Central Highlands in the Deccan Peninsula
(Figure 3). Judging by historical and
contemporary reports, 4B: Semi-arid Gujarat Rajputana seems to be the
stronghold for the Caracal. The biotic
province 3B: Kutch Desert has more numerous reports in the current period than
in the historical period. This is likely
due to greater accessibility of this biotic province today than in the
past. Very few historical records are
known in 3A: Thar Desert, and no contemporary reports are known despite far
greater access to this region today.
Prakash (1994b) considered the Caracal to have been ‘very common’
in the Thar Desert in the beginning of the 20th Century. He, however, does not provide any evidence to
validate this statement. The report from
4A: Semi-arid Punjab Plains is very close to the border with 4B: Semi-arid
Gujarat Rajputana, and the report in 6A: Central Highlands is a stand-alone
report with no photographic documentation.
Therefore, it appears that Caracal populations existing in 4B: Semi-arid
Gujarat Rajputana and 3B: Kutch Desert could be the only viable populations in
India today. Nevertheless, more targeted
surveys are needed in addition to the intensive camera trapping targeting the
Tiger in 4B: Semi-arid Gujarat Rajputana.
It must, however, be noted that the multiple photographic reports in the
Kutch Desert are not from camera trapping efforts. Regular intensive camera trapping in other
parts of the Caracal’s historical range such as Panna Tiger Reserve and Kuno Wildlife
Sanctuary did not yield any record of the Caracal (Y.V. Jhala pers. comm.
2019). The same holds true for the
forests of Mirzapur (Sinha & Chaudhary 2019).
The putative extent of occurrence of the Caracal
decreased by 47.99% in the period before 1947 to the period between 1947 and
2000, and the putative extent of occurrence area of the latter period accounted
for 52% of the period until 1947.
The locations with verifiable reports from 2001 onwards
are within a total area of 16,709km2,
which is just 2.10% of the area of the Caracal’s estimated historic range in
India before 1947, and 4.04% of the area in the 1948–2000 period. Therefore, there has possibly been a further
95.95% decrease in the Caracal’s range, which is highly fragmented today. In Rajasthan, Caracal populations are present
in Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve and contiguous areas including Dholpur, the
region of Kumbalgarh-Todgarh-Raoli in Udaipur, particularly at the junction of
Kumbhalgarh-Todgarh-Raoli, and an isolated population in the
Chittorgarh-Pratapgarh region. Outside
Rajasthan, the only authentic post-2000 reports are in the Kutch region of
Gujarat. There, however, have been
practically no attempts to survey the Caracal in most regions of its past
reported range and the much higher effort put into camera-trapping and photographing
in and around Ranthambhore and Kutch could be a reason for the higher numbers
reported. Physical connectivity between
these four landscapes is highly fragmented with potential impact on gene flow
and population connectivity for the Caracal.
This range encompasses Sariska Tiger Reserve,
Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, the districts of Udaipur and Chittorgarh in
Rajasthan, the Kutch region in Gujarat and the Chambal ravine area in Madhya
Pradesh.
No focused surveys for the Caracal were carried out in
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and in eastern parts of India. It may be possible that it is present there
but under-reported. In that case, the
putative reduction of its range needs to be verified and adjusted based on
robust data.
The common feature of these areas is dry deciduous thorn
forest with waterbodies. If a river is
present, the ground cover is usually sparse along severely eroded riverbanks
and adjacent ravine habitat, while evergreen riparian vegetation is completely
absent. While both the Kutch Desert and
Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve exhibit dry habitats, 97 small rivers originate in
the former and the latter has many rivers and rivulets that criss-cross the
landscape and meet the Chambal river (Khandal & Khandal 2017).
Our findings indicate that the Caracal is indeed present
in dry open habitats with some vegetation but is absent in ‘true’ desert as
described by Sunquist & Sunquist (2002).
This habitat use is consistent with records obtained in arid and
semi-arid mountains and hilly terrain in Iran (Farhadinia et al. 2007;
Ghoddousi et al. 2009; Moqanaki et al. 2016) and in Uzbekistan (Gritsina 2019).
With the exception of field work carried out by Mukherjee
et al. (2004) on diet and habitat use and Singh et al. (2014, 2015) on abundance
and population density, no other surveys contributed to the knowledge about
Caracal ecology in India in the 21st Century. The Caracal is among India’s most neglected
cats, although already in 2010, Ranjitsinh & Jhala (2010) considered the
Caracal to be on the brink of extinction in the country. Surveys on population size, reproduction,
mortality, home range sizes and prey dynamics of the Caracal are urgently
needed. A review of how land policy especially the categorization of land as
wasteland, impacts the Caracal as a scrub dwelling species is also
necessary. Between 2008–09 and 2015–16,
2,146.11km2 of sandy semi-stabilised, dense scrubland and open
scrubland has been converted into cropland in Rajasthan for example (Government
of India 2019). Equally essential are
long-term studies focusing on movement patterns of Caracals to determine and
establish wildlife corridors that are suitable to connect the remaining
fragmented population units. We hope to
inspire fellow conservationists to contribute to saving the Caracal from
becoming extinct in the country.
Table 1. Biogeographic
zones and biotic provinces in northern, western, and central parts of India
described by Rodgers et al. (2002)
Biogeographic zone |
Biotic provinces |
Main characteristics |
7: Gangetic Plain |
7A: Upper Gangetic Plain in
Uttar Pradesh and southern Uttarakhand 7B: Lower Gangetic Plain in
Bihar and Bengal |
River basin with alluvial
barriers |
4: Semi-arid |
4A: Semi-arid Punjab Plains
in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, and a pocket of northeastern Rajasthan 4B:
Semi-arid Gujarat Rajputana in Rajasthan, Gujarat and northwestern Madhya
Pradesh |
Discontinuous xerophytic
vegetation cover with open areas of bare soil due to reduced ground and
surface water |
3: Desert |
3A: Thar Desert in Rajasthan 3B: Kutch Desert in Gujarat |
Sand dunes Salt marshes with flooded
grasslands towards the coast of the Arabian Sea |
6: Deccan Peninsula |
6A: Central Highlands in
Madhya Pradesh, southern Uttar Pradesh, pocket of southwestern Bihar,
northwestern Chhattisgarh and pockets of northern Maharashtra 6D: Central Plateau in
Maharashtra, northern Karnataka, Telangana, and a pocket of northern Andhra
Pradesh 6B: Chotta Nagpur in
Jharkhand, southern Bihar, northern Odisha, a pocket of West Bengal, and
northeastern Chhattisgarh 6C: Eastern Highlands in
Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh |
Tropical dry and moist
deciduous forests |
Table 2. Chronology of Caracal reports in India until
1947.
No. on map |
Date |
Location |
Report details |
Source |
1 |
1616 |
Ajmer, Rajasthan |
Mughal Emperor Jahangir hunted a Caracal |
Thackston (1999); Thackston pers. comm. 2019 |
2 |
14.xi.1831 |
Phaphamau satellite township of Prayagraj, Uttar
Pradesh |
Caracal caught on the grounds of the circuit
bungalow, a rest house. Parks (1850) was also
acquainted with a captive Caracal owned by William Gardner. |
Parks (1850) |
3 |
15.iv.1852 |
Bhainsrorgarh, Rajasthan |
Saw a large Lynx (Caracal) |
Rice(1857) |
4 |
1862–1864 |
Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh |
Hunted a Caracal. The Caracal was shot down from a
tree at night and severely injured Forsyth’s pack of hunting dogs, making it
unlikely to be a case of mistaken identity with a Jungle Cat, which Forsyth
(1889) separately identified. |
Forsyth (1889) |
5 |
~1872 |
Kutch, Gujarat |
Observed the Rao of Kutch hunting a Caracal |
Stoliczka (1872) |
6 |
~1874 |
Northern Circars, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha |
Caracal sighted or collected |
Jerdon (1874) |
7 |
~1874 |
Neermul Jungle, Telangana |
Caracal sighted or collected |
Jerdon (1874) |
8 |
~1874 |
Mhow, Madhya Pradesh |
Caracal sighted or collected |
Jerdon (1874) |
9 |
~1874 |
Jeypore – Koraput, Odisha |
Caracal collected and sent to Edward Blyth |
Jerdon (1874) |
10 |
~1874 |
Chutia (Chota) Nagpur Division |
Seen a Caracal |
Ball (1874) |
11 |
~1883–1884 |
Jhang, Punjab, Pakistan |
Detailed description of presence in the region.
Vernacular name bar billa provided. |
Punjab Government (1884) |
12 |
~1884 |
Kathiawar, Gujarat |
Wild Caracals observed hunting hares by William Rice. Almost a century later,
Dharmakumarsinhji (1978) only mentioned coursing Caracals in an article on
Kathiawar. Dharmakumarsinhji’s omission of wild Caracals presumably caused
natural historians like Ranjitsinh (2017) to report that the Caracal in
Gujarat was found only in the Kutch region. |
Rice (1884) |
13 |
~1887 |
Mumdot, Firozpur, Punjab |
Missed a shot on a Caracal |
Newall (1887) |
14 |
1888 |
Central Province, Maharashtra |
Baker(1890) hunted a Caracal |
Baker (1890) |
15 |
vii.1891 |
Goona (Guna), Madhya Pradesh |
Caracal skull deposited by G.E. Money, Reg. no. 6056 |
Sameer Bajaru, Assistant Curator, BNHS collection in
litt. 2019; Phipson (1891) |
16 |
1892 |
Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh |
Caracal attacked a worker; Caracal was killed and its
skeleton submitted to BNHS. First report of a Caracal attacking a human in India |
Drake-Brockman (1892); MacDonald (1893) |
17 |
Early
20th century |
Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh |
Three Caracals shot in 20–30 years by J.C. Taylor and
his brother. Taylor (1961) shot a Caracal that attacked him when
he was 12 years old. Second report of
an attack in India after Drake-Brockman (1892) |
Taylor (1961) |
18 |
18.ii.1905 |
Khadir of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh |
Smith and Parsons killed a Caracal |
Wardrop (1914) |
19 |
~1908 |
South Punjab |
Detailed description of presence in the region. |
Rose et al. (1908) |
20 |
ix.1908 |
Jalaun District, Central Province, Uttar Pradesh |
Caracal skin deposited at BNHS by L.R. Clarke |
Millard (1908) |
21 |
~1909 |
Sambalpur, Odisha |
Dogs killed a Caracal. |
O’Malley (1909) |
22 |
~1909 |
Northwest Bastar, Chhattisgarh |
Detailed description of presence in the region.
Tribal people include the Caracal in their diet because they do not consider
it to be a cat. First report of a Caracal being a food source for
humans in India. |
De Brett (1909) |
23 |
~1911 |
Amravati, Maharashtra |
Detailed description
of presence in the region. Vernacular name, jhua or jhuva
distinct from that of the Jungle Cat provided. |
Fitzgerald & Nelson (1911) |
24 |
~1912 |
Dhondsa, Kutch, Gujarat |
Male Caracal skin |
Wroughton (1912) |
25 |
~1912 |
Bhuj, Kutch, Gujarat |
Female Caracal skin |
Wroughton (1912) |
26 |
Christmas 1912 |
Sagar, Madhya Pradesh |
A Caracal is hunted |
Maxwell (1914) |
27 |
28.xii.1912 |
Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh |
Hunted a Caracal |
Allen (1919) |
28 |
8.iv.1914 |
Wano, Waziristan, Pakistan |
Caracal skin deposited at BNHS by F.L. Hughes, Reg.
no. 6054 |
Sameer Bajaru, Assistant Curator, BNHS collection in
litt. 2019 |
29 |
~1920 |
Tughlakabad, Delhi |
Burke (1920) noted that he
received the measurement details of a Caracal hunted by Lieut. Watson in
Tughlakabad |
Burke (1920) |
30 |
~1923 |
Okha, Devbhumi Dwarka, Gujarat |
Detailed description of presence in the region |
Desai & Clarke (1923) |
31 |
~1923 |
Punjab |
A male Caracal hunted |
Ward (1923) |
32 |
~1928 |
Punjab Salt range, Pakistan |
Shot a Caracal |
Stockley (1928) |
33 |
~1932–1933 |
Dholpur, Rajasthan |
Seen a Caracal |
Waddington (1933) |
34 |
~1920–1930 |
Lotiya Jheer Jhalawar, Rajasthan |
Head mount of a subadult Caracal in Prithivi Vilas
Palace, Jhalawar, Rajasthan |
Mahijit
Singh pers. comm. 2019 |
35 |
1935 |
Nara Magra hillock, very close to Udai Vilas
Palace, Dungarpur, Rajasthan |
One Caracal head mount displayed in the dining hall
of Udai Vilas Palace, Dungarpur, Rajasthan |
Image 3 |
36 |
~1940s–1950s |
Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh |
Shot three Caracals in 20 years. Holdsworth (1960) shot a
Caracal in Saharanpur while hunting junglefowl Gallus and was not
aware of the identity of the killed cat. Later, Holdsworth shot two cats on
junglefowl beats, which he identified as Caracal using the book by Brander
(1923). |
Holdsworth (1960, 1962) |
Table 3. Chronology
of Caracal reports from 1948 to 2000 in Indian national parks (NP), tiger
reserves (TR), wildlife sanctuaries (WS) and outside protected areas (Figure
2).
No. on map |
Date |
Location |
Report Details |
Source |
1 |
1948 |
Dungarpur, Rajasthan |
Census carried out by Maharawal Lakshman Singh
reported 38 Caracals |
Ranjitsinh (2017) |
2 |
1.–5.iii.1951 |
Satukhera (Satookhera) Block, Todgarh-Raoli Forest,
Rajasthan |
Keshav Sen Khaarwa
hunted a Caracal |
Sharma (2015) |
3 |
1954 |
Bikaner, Rajasthan |
Saw a Caracal skin with a Sansi hunter who
killed it in Bikaner and refused to sell the skin |
Prakash (1960) |
4 |
~1954–1958 |
Between Delhi and Rohtak, Harayana |
Geoffrey C. Ward hunted a Caracal |
Ward & Ward (1993); Geoffrey C. Ward in litt. 2019 |
5 |
v.1955 |
Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh |
Caracal hunted by forest officer Srivastava. |
Srivastava (1959) |
6 |
xii. 1956 |
Tamba Kan, Sariska TR, Rajasthan |
Caracal cubs no older than 6-7 days captured; they
died and their skins were identified by the ZSI in Calcutta |
Sharma & Sankhala (1984b) |
7 |
xii.1956 |
Ajabgarh, Alwar, Rajasthan |
Caracal spotted in grassy scrub land |
Sharma & Sankhala (1984a) |
8 |
xii.1957 |
Hazaribagh NP, Jharkhand |
Caracal seen |
Sen (1959) |
9 |
1960 |
Kurabad, Udaipur |
A Caracal shot by Raza Tehsin |
Satish Sharma in litt.
2020 |
10 |
30.i.1962 |
Amritkua Baran, Rajasthan |
Caracal head mount |
Displayed in the Billiards Room of Umed Bhawan Palace
Hotel, Kota, Rajasthan |
11 |
v.1962 |
Sariska TR, Rajasthan |
K. Rungta collected two Caracal cubs and raised them
in Jaipur. |
Rungta (2017) |
12 |
xi.1962 |
Jodhpur, Rajasthan |
A ZSI scientist found a Caracal skin in a tanner shop
in Jodhpur. The tanner told him it was killed by a Bawri hunter around
Jodhpur in November 1962. |
Prakash (1994) |
13 |
1962–1963 |
Ajabgarh, Sariska TR, Rajasthan |
Hunted a Caracal and photographed it |
Rungta pers. comm. 2019 |
14 |
1964 |
Burhanpur, Madhya Pradesh |
Caracal sighted |
Ranjitsinh (2017) |
15 |
1967 |
Sariska TR, Rajasthan |
Seen a Caracal |
David (1967) |
16 |
1967 |
Machedi Village, Alwar, Rajasthan |
A mother Caracal with a cub seen by forest officer
V.S. Saxena |
Satish Sharma in litt. 2020 |
17 |
1967 |
Kalighati, Sariska, Alwar, Rajasthan |
A Caracal seen by forest officer V.S. Saxena |
Satish Sharma in litt. 2020 |
18 |
1970–1973 |
Ichhawar Range, Sehore District, Madhya Pradesh |
Biologist Raghunandan S. Chundawat saw a Caracal
cross the road and go into a teak forest |
Raghunandan S. Chundawat
pers. comm. 2020 |
19 |
1970–1973 |
Gandhisagar WS, Madhya Pradesh |
Biologist Raghunandan S. Chundawat saw a Caracal on
foot, they flushed the Caracal from Acacia bushes in an overgrazed
area. The Caracal ran away. |
Raghunandan S. Chundawat
pers. comm. 2020 |
20 |
Unknown, before 1972 |
Teetarkheri Jhalawar, Rajasthan |
A Caracal head mount in the possession of Vartol
Jagirdar, Sabarkantha, Gujarat |
Satish Sharma pers. comm.
2019 |
21 |
1973 |
Ranthambhore TR, Rajasthan |
A Caracal seen by forest officer V.S. Saxena |
Satish Sharma in litt. 2020 |
22 |
I.1975 |
Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh |
Two Caracal cubs collected and photographed by forest
officer Ashok Singh. The photo of one of the cubs adorned the cover of Cheetal.
Possibly the only photo of a Caracal from Uttar Pradesh. |
(Singh 1975) |
23 |
~1975 |
Sangod Baran, Rajasthan |
Caracal sighted |
Bharat Singh pers. comm. 2019 |
24 |
~1977–1979 |
Phagwara, Punjab |
Caracal rescued from villagers who tried to beat it
to death. |
Gurmit Singh pers. comm.
2019 |
25 |
v.1979 |
Buja, Sariska TR, Rajasthan |
Caracal spotted in grassy plain in search light |
Sharma & Sankhala (1984a) |
26 |
1980 |
Pali, Rajasthan |
Five skins recovered thought to have been killed in
Pali for skin trade |
Sharma & Sankhala (1984a) |
27 |
Unknown |
Ajmer, Rajasthan |
A Caracal killed by Daud Khan |
Sharma & Sankhala (1984a) |
28 |
iii.1981 |
Shyamgiri Kalda Plateau, Madhya Pradesh |
Skin of a Caracal poached by local people |
H.S. Pabla in litt. 2019;
Shyamendra Singh pers. comm. 2019 |
29 |
ix1981 |
Sariska TR, Rajasthan |
Caracal seen by zoologist J.H. Reichholf |
Stuart (1984) |
30 |
~1982 |
Padam Talab, Ranthambhore TR, Rajasthan |
Seen and photographed a Caracal |
Valmik Thapar in litt. 2020 |
31 |
xii.1982 |
Tehla, Sariska TR, Rajasthan |
A dead Caracal collected by a forest officer |
Sharma & Sankhala (1984a) |
32 |
Winter 1982 |
Chittorgarh, Rajasthan |
Caracal caught and sent to Jaipur Zoo |
(Rungta 2017) |
33 |
v.1983 |
Bodal Ranthambhore, Rajasthan |
Caracal run over by a vehicle |
Sharma & Sankhala (1984a) |
34 |
1982–1983 |
Road from Rajgarh to Narsinghgarh, 50–58 km distance,
Rajgarh District, Madhya Pradesh |
A Caracal road kill seen by biologist Raghunandan S. Chundawat. |
Raghunandan S. Chundawat pers. comm. 2020 |
35 |
11.iii.1984 |
Semli, Ranthambhore TR, Rajasthan |
Caracal sighted by forest officer Fateh Singh Rathore |
Sharma & Sankhala (1984a) |
36 |
1985 |
Ramsagar Talab, Nahargarh, Jaipur, Rajasthan |
A Caracal poached for bushmeat (personal consumption)
by a local poacher named Sultan Khan Second report of Caracals being consumed by humans in
India after De Brett (1909). |
Raj Chauhan pers. comm. 2019 |
37 |
24.iv.1986 |
Between Sariska NP gate and Kalighati, Rajasthan |
Caracal sighted |
Divyabhanusinh (1987) |
38 |
1986 |
Melghat, Maharashtra |
Caracal sighted |
Ranjitsinh (2017) |
39 |
vi.1987 |
Luharpur Pipliya Manak Chok, Ramgarh Vishdhari WS,
Bundi, Rajasthan |
A Caracal sighted by forest officer P.K. Jain |
Satish Sharma in litt. 2020 |
40 |
1991 |
Jawda Nimdi, Chittorgarh, Rajasthan |
A Caracal sighted by Shyam Singh Mahechha |
Harshvardhan Singh Mahechha
pers. comm. 2020 |
41 |
1993 |
Modia, Kumbhalgarh WS, Rajasthan |
Two adult Caracals seen by forest officer Parbat
Singh |
Satish Sharma in litt. 2020 |
42 |
1994 |
Sirondh Kalan, Alwar, Rajasthan |
A Caracal rescued from a well by forest officer B.M.
Sharma |
Satish Sharma in litt. 2020 |
43 |
1994 |
Ghanerao, Desuri, Pali District, Rajasthan |
Two adult Caracals seen by forest officer Parbat
Singh |
Satish Sharma in litt. 2020 |
44 |
1994 |
Sadri Latada, Kumbhalgarh WS, Rajasthan |
A single Caracal sighted multiple times by forest
officer Parbat Singh |
Satish Sharma in litt. 2020 |
45 |
vii.1995 |
Sariska TR, Rajasthan |
Observed a Caracal plucking feathers off a dead
Peacock Pavo cristatus |
Shomita Mukherjee in litt. 2020 |
46 |
1996 |
Near Pat and Khanay Village, Naliya side, Kutch,
Gujarat |
A Caracal sighted by Dinesh Sharma and Bharat Jethva |
Bharat Jethva pers. comm.
2019 |
47 |
1997 |
Tera Village, Kutch, Gujarat |
Seen a Caracal |
Bharat Jethva pers. comm.
2019 |
48 |
vi.1998 |
Malik Talab to Lakarda Road, Ranthambhore TR,
Rajasthan |
Observed a Caracal crossing the road |
G.V. Reddy pers. obs. |
49 |
ii.1998 |
Takhatpura, tehsil and district Jalore, Rajasthan |
Caracal sighted by Pradeep Singh |
Ranjitsinh (1999) |
50 |
1998 |
Tera Village, Kutch, Gujarat |
A Caracal feeding on a Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis, photographed |
Dinesh Sharma in litt. 2020 |
51 |
1999 |
Ganeshdham, Ranthambhore TR, Sawai Madhopur,
Rajasthan |
Seen a Caracal crossing road at 21.00h |
Aditya Singh pers. comm.
2020 |
52 |
1999 |
Dhopchok, Ranthambhore TR, Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan |
Seen a Caracal |
Aditya Singh pers. comm.
2000 |
53 |
xi.1999 |
Guda–Lahpur road, Ranthambhore TR, Rajasthan |
Caracal seen crossing road |
G.V. Reddy pers. obs. |
Table 4.
Caracal specimens and trophy reports in private collections and museums.
Date |
Location |
Specimen details |
Source |
In private collections |
|||
1920–1930 |
Lotiya Jheer Jhalawar, Rajasthan |
Head mount of a subadult Caracal in the Prithivi
Palace of Jhalawar, Rajasthan |
Mahijit Singh pers. comm. 2019 |
1935 |
Nara Magra hillock, very close to Udai Vilas Palace, Dungarpur,
Rajasthan |
One Caracal head mount displayed in the dining hall
of the Udai Vilas Palace, Dungarpur, Rajasthan |
Dharmendra Khandal pers. obs. 14 November 2019 (Image
3) |
Unknown, before 1972 |
Teetarkheri, Jhalawar, Rajasthan |
Caracal head mount in the possession of Vartol
Jagirdar, Sabarkantha, Gujarat |
Satish Sharma pers. comm. 2019 |
Unknown |
Possibly from Kota Baran area, Rajasthan |
Two Caracal head mounts displayed in the billiard
room of Umed Bhawan Palace Hotel, Kota, Rajasthan |
Ravindra Singh Tomar pers. comm. 2019 |
30.i.1962 |
Amrit Kua, Baran, Rajasthan |
One Caracal head mount displayed in the billiard room
of Umed Bhawan Palace Hotel, Kota, Rajasthan |
Ravindra Singh Tomar pers. comm. 2019 |
In the museum of BNHS |
|||
vii.1891 |
Goona (Guna), Madhya Pradesh |
One Caracal skull deposited by G.E. Money, Reg. no.
6056 |
Sameer Bajaru, Assistant Curator, BNHS collection in
litt. 2019; Phipson (1891) |
8.iv.1914 |
Wano, Waziristan, Pakistan |
A Caracal skin deposited by Capt. F.L. Hughes, Reg.
no. 6054 |
Sameer Bajaru, Assistant Curator, BNHS collection in
litt. 2019 |
In the museum of Zoological Survey of India |
|||
20.i.1876 |
Unknown |
Caracal skull deposited by W. Rutledge, Reg. No. 133 |
Chakraborty (2004) |
Unknown |
Unknown |
Preserved body of a female Caracal given by
Zoological Garden Alipore to ZSI, Catalogue no. KS 3120 |
Sonia Mondal, ZSI, in litt. 2019 |
Unknown |
Unknown |
Full body of a female Caracal, Catalogue no. (10)
3372 |
Sonia Mondal, ZSI, in litt. 2019 |
Unknown |
Unknown |
Full body of a male Caracal, Reg. no. 7140 |
Sonia Mondal, ZSI, in litt. 2019 |
Unknown |
Unknown |
Skin of a Caracal deposited by W. Rutledge, catalogue
no. 4137 |
Sonia Mondal, ZSI, in litt. 2019 |
In the Museum of Jaipur Zoo, Rajasthan |
|||
Unknown |
Unknown |
Full body mount of a Caracal |
Sudarshan Sharma in litt. 2019 |
Deposited in the museum of the BNHS but currently not
in the possession of the museum |
|||
May–June 1888 |
Unknown |
One live Caracal deposited by F.D. Alexander |
Phipson (1888) |
March–April 1889 |
Unknown |
One Caracal skin deposited by A. Spitteler |
Phipson (1889) |
1892 |
Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh |
Caracal skeleton deposited by H.E. Drake-Brockman |
MacDonald (1893) |
March 1893 |
Unknown |
One live Caracal deposited by H. Parry |
MacDonald (1893) |
May 1907 |
Kangra Hills, Himachal Pradesh |
One Caracal skin and skull deposited by Gen. W.
Osborn |
Bell (1907) |
September 1908 |
Jalaun District,Uttar Pradesh |
Caracal skin deposited by L.R. Clarke |
Millard (1908) |
Table
5A. Camera trap pictures of the Caracal in Rajasthan between 2015 and 2020 by
village wildlife volunteers in ravine habitat (RH), Hilly Dhonk forest (HDF),
Prosopis juliflora thickets (PjT), scrubland (SL), grassland (GL), Teak forest
(TF), agricultural land (A), river (R), seasonal stream (SN), seasonal pond
(SP), canal (C), lake (L), perennial stream (PN), perennial waterhole (PWH).
No. on map |
Habitat type |
Water source |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
|
|||||
1 |
RH |
R |
- |
- |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
|
|||||
2 |
HDF |
SN |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
4 |
||||||
3 |
RH |
SN |
- |
- |
- |
- |
3 |
- |
||||||
Table
5B. Records around Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, all A, including 12 locations
near Ranthambhore National Park (4 I), five locations around Sawai Mansingh
Sanctuary (4 II) and three locations around Kailadevi Wildlife Sanctuary (4
III) |
|
|||||||||||||
4 I |
RH, HDF |
R, L, SN, PN |
6 |
33 |
41 |
23 |
33 |
8 |
|
|||||
4 II |
HDF |
R, L, SN, PN |
- |
- |
- |
1 |
3 |
2 |
||||||
4 III |
HDF |
R, L, SN, PN |
- |
1 |
5 |
- |
9 |
3 |
||||||
|
Total |
|
6 |
34 |
47 |
24 |
48 |
17 |
||||||
Table 5C. Observations of the Caracal in Ranthambhore
Tiger Reserve.
No. |
Date |
Location |
Habitat type |
Water source |
Type of report |
Source |
IV |
27.v.2014 |
Kundal |
SL/HDF |
SN |
Seen and photographed a Caracal |
Sunil Sarkar Game watcher Manas pers. comm. 2014 |
V |
21.i.2014 |
Indala tiraya |
HDF |
SN |
A male Caracal was feeding on a Chinkara,
photographed |
Balendu Singh in litt. 2019 |
VI |
05.v.2013 |
Indala |
HDF |
SN |
A Caracal observed leaping towards a flock of doves,
photographed |
Dharmendra Khandal pers. obs. |
VII |
2.i.2010 |
Padam Talab |
HDF |
L |
Seen a Caracal, photographed |
Balendu Singh pers. comm. 2019 |
VIII |
17.i.2010 |
Padam Talab to Rajbagh |
HDF |
L |
A Caracal was seen and photographed |
Balendu Singh, Gobind Sagar Bhardwaj & Subhas
Sharma in litt. 2019 |
IX |
xi.2009 |
Berda |
HDF |
SN |
A Caracal on a tree, photographed |
Soonoo Taraporewala in litt. 2019 |
X |
xi.2009 |
Rajbagh |
HDF |
L |
Few glimpses of a Caracal hiding in Justicia
adhatoda bushes near the lake |
Dharmendra Khandal pers. obs. Photographed by Rahul Rao |
XI |
2.xii.2009 |
Bhoot Khora |
HDF |
SN |
A Caracal photographed |
Salim Ali in litt. 2019 |
XII |
16.vi.2009 |
Kachida |
HDF |
SN |
A female Caracal with two subadult cubs observed for
~ 45-50 minutes feeding on a monitor lizard, photographed |
Dharmendra Khandal pers. obs. |
XIII |
29.i.2009 |
Bhoot Khora |
HDF |
SN |
A female Caracal with cubs photographed |
Balendu Singh in litt. 2019 |
XIV |
2009 |
Ranthambhore TR |
HDF |
L |
Photographed a Caracal |
Singh et al. (2011) |
XV |
8.iii.2008 |
Rajbagh – Malik Talab Road |
HDF |
L |
Caracal seen on a tree, photographed |
Aditya Singh in litt. 2020 |
XVI |
xii.2006–xii.2009 |
Various locations in Ranthambhore Division of
Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve |
HDF |
SN |
Forest Department and WII team got 37 camera trap
pictures in three years |
Singh et al. (2014) |
XVII |
6.vii.2004 |
Berda |
HDF |
SN |
A female Caracal with two sub adult cubs photographed |
Margarita Steinhardt in litt. 2019 |
XVIII |
vi.2001 |
Lahpur |
HDF |
SN |
A Caracal was observed crossing the road |
G.V. Reddy pers. obs. |
Kailadevi Wildlife Sanctuary, Karauli, part of
Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve |
||||||
XIX |
16.x.2016 |
Balaji Telai, Dangda |
HDF |
SP |
A Caracal was observed |
Dharmendra Khandal pers. obs. |
XX |
15.x.2016 |
Balaji Telai Dangda |
HDF |
SN |
Photographed a Caracal |
Dharmendra Khandal pers. obs. |
Table
5D. Observations of the Caracal in other protected areas in Rajasthan
No. on map |
Date |
Location |
Habitat type |
Water source |
Type of
report |
Source |
5 |
2015 |
Kalighati to
Bana Road, Sariska Tiger Reserve, Alwar |
HDF |
SN |
Seen by forest
officer Y.K Duck, no photograph |
Manoj Parashar pers. comm. 2019 |
6 |
2014 |
Karna Ka Bas,
Sariska Tiger Reserve, Alwar |
HDF |
SN |
Seen by
Ambassador of the Czech Republic, no photograph |
Manoj Parashar pers. comm. 2019 |
7 |
2006 |
Sariska gate to
Kankwadi, Sariska Tiger Reserve, Alwar |
HDF |
SN |
Five Caracals
seen in two different locations by forest officers Manoj Parashar and
Ramkaran Khiarwa, no photograph |
Manoj Parashar pers. comm. 2019 |
8 |
2004 |
Near Bharthari,
Sariska Tiger Reserve, Alwar |
HDF |
SN |
Seen a Caracal
vocalising as it walked 1km seen by a forest officer Udayram Chaudhary |
Satish Sharma in litt. 2020 |
9 |
2004 |
Karna Ka bas,
Sariska Tiger Reserve, Alwar |
HDF |
SN |
Caracal seen by
forest officer Udayram Chaudhary |
Satish Sharma in litt. 2020 |
10 |
23.vii.2004 |
Sariska Tiger
Reserve, Alwar |
-- |
-- |
A Caracal
photographed |
Heerden (2004) |
11 |
18.iv.2017 |
Keoladeo
National Park, Bharatpur |
SL |
L |
Forest
Department camera trapped a Caracal |
Bijo Joy pers. comm. 2017 |
12 |
2008 |
Between Areth to
Thandi Beri, Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary, Rajsamand |
HDF |
SN |
A Caracal seen
multiple times by forest officer Bhanwar Singh Chauhan |
Satish Sharma in litt. 2020 |
13 |
2003 |
Dhana forest
Block, 2km after the main gate of Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary |
HDF |
SN |
A Caracal
sighted by two forest officers Rahul Bhatnagar and Raghuvir Singh Shekhawat |
Rahul Bhatnagar pers. comm. 2020 |
14 |
2010 |
Grassland area
of Bassi dam and Orai Dam. Bassi Wildlife Sanctuary, Chittorgarh |
HDF |
L |
A Caracal seen
by forest officer Manoj Parashar,no photograph |
Manoj Parashar pers. comm. 2019 |
15 |
~xii.2016–i.2017 |
5–6 km away from
Johjawar village, Kamli Ghat, Todgarh Raoli
Wildlife Sanctuary, Pali |
HDF |
SN |
A Caracal seen
by Nagendra Singh Johjawar, no photograph |
Nagendra Singh Johjawar pers. comm. 2019 |
16 |
x. 2006 |
Devriya Farm,
Jawda Nimdi Bhainsrorgarh
Wildife Sanctuary, Chittorgarh |
HDF |
R |
Caracal seen
crossing road, no photograph |
Harshwardhan Singh Mahechha pers. comm.
2020 |
Table 5E. Observations of the Caracal outside
protected areas in Rajasthan
Sawai Madhopur District |
||||||
17 |
06.iv.2017 |
Kosra Village, Sawai Madhopur |
R |
R |
A sub adult male Caracal fell in a well and was rescued by Forest
Department staff. |
Dharmendra Khandal pers. obs.
Photographed |
Udaipur District |
||||||
18 |
30.iv.2013 |
Baghdarrah |
SL |
L |
Forest officer Satish Sharma seen a Caracal crossing Badar road |
Satish Sharma in litt.
2020 |
19 |
24.ii.2010 |
Badi Talab adjacent to Sajjangarh Wildlife Sanctuary, Kaler Forest |
OMJ |
L |
Caracal seen by Raza Tehsin |
Satish Sharma in litt. 2020 |
20 |
v.2009 |
Near Banki Forest area |
HDF |
SN |
Seen a Caracal, no photograph |
Sharad Agarwal pers. comm. 2019 |
21 |
2004 |
Kheroda |
SL |
SN |
Flying squad of Forest Department rescued a Caracal from an open well |
Satish Sharma pers. comm. 2020 |
Pratapgarh District |
||||||
22 |
22.iv.2008 |
Salamgarh, Arnod, Pratapgarh |
OTF |
SN |
A subadult Caracal caught by forester Chhotulal Meena near village and
later released there |
Satish Sharma in litt. 2020 |
23 |
12.xii.2006 |
Near Arnod, south of Pratapgarh |
TF |
PN |
Rescued an abandoned Caracal cub and sent to Gulab Bagh Zoo, Udaipur |
Satish Sharma pers. comm. 2020 |
Alwar District |
||||||
24 |
Winter 2004 |
Badodh Roondh |
RH |
SN |
A female Caracal with two cubs seen by forest officer Udayram
Chaudhary |
Satish Sharma in litt. 2020 |
Table 6. Reports of the Caracal in Gujarat from 2001
onwards (Figure 3).
No. on map |
Date |
Location |
Habitat type |
Water source |
Type of report |
Source |
Kutch District |
||||||
25 |
25.x.2019, 10.00h |
Rampar Village, Nakhtrana |
SL/A |
PN |
A male Caracal jumped in a
shallow well to feed on Indian Bullfrog Hoplobatrachus tigerinus. It caught a rope in its mouth, which was
hanging in the well. The rescuer put a
wire mesh tree guard in the well, and it successfully climbed up and ran
away. The rescue was filmed by rescuer
Jagat Sinh Sodha |
Jagat Sinh Sodha, pers. comm. 2019 |
26 |
iv.2019 |
Guglani Rakhal, Oaran Mata –
near the Lifri Lignite Mine |
SL |
PWH |
A Caracal seen and peafowl
alarm calls noted |
Jugal Tiwari pers. comm. 2019 |
27 |
Winter 2018–2019 |
Mosuna Village |
SL |
SN |
A Caracal repeatedly entered
a shepherd’s livestock shelter and killed 18–20 lambs in a span of 15–20 days
despite close vigilance |
Sujan Bhai Raibari pers. comm. 2019 |
28 |
xii.2018, 19.30h |
Jalu |
SL |
SN |
Sodha was observing animals
on a water body and saw a Caracal. No
photograph |
Vikram Sinh Sodha pers. comm. 2019 |
29 |
Xii.2015, 23.45h |
Gatchdo Village |
PjT |
SN |
Caracal seen and photographed |
Jugal Tiwari pers. comm. 2019 |
30 |
14.vi.2015 |
Nani Aral Village |
PjT |
SN |
A sub adult Caracal killed by
trained hunting dogs when it was near the charcoal maker’s colony,
photographed |
Shivbhadra Sinh in litt. 2019 |
31 |
2015 |
Devisar Village |
PjT/ SL |
SN |
A Caracal killed eight lambs
belonging to a Sodha Rajpoot pastoralist who killed the Caracal and also
photographed. |
Vikram Sinh Sodha pers. comm. 2019 |
32 |
3.xi.2014 |
Nani Vamoti Village |
SL |
SN |
A Caracal seen crossing the
road. No photograph |
Shivbhadra Sinh in litt. 2019 |
33 |
21.i.2014 |
Near Khanay Village |
SL/A |
SN |
A male Caracal came to hunt
poultry and was killed by trained dogs.
No photograph |
Shivbhadra Sinh in litt. 2019 |
34 |
25.xi.2013 |
Jatavira Village |
PjT |
SN |
A Caracal was trapped in an
iron jaw trap planted for Wild Boar Sus scrofa. Staff of a local NGO helped Forest
Department (FD) officers to treat the injured animal. FD officers rescued a
Caracal; several photographs |
Jugal Tiwari, Vikram Sinh Sodha, Shivbhadra Sinh, Ashok Chaudhary
pers. comm. 2019 |
35 |
i.2014, 9.45h |
Near Beru Village, Kutch ,
Gujarat. |
SL |
SN |
Jugal Tiwari saw a Caracal |
Jugal Tiwari pers. comm. 2019 |
36 |
17.iii.2013 |
Jara-Jumra Road |
SL/PjT |
SN |
A female Caracal killed in a
road accident |
Shivbhadra Sinh in litt. 2019 |
37 |
18.ix.2012 |
Near Fulay Village |
SL/A |
SN |
A local herder frequently saw
a Caracal in these areas during the evening |
Shivbhadra Sinh in litt. 2019 |
38 |
24.xii.2010 |
Naliya forest area |
SL |
SN |
Photographed a female Caracal
with cub |
Adesh Shivkar pers. comm. 2019 |
39 |
xii.2009, 8.30h |
Bitta Village, towards Abdasa
Taluka on the way to Naliya |
SL |
SN |
Female Caracal with two cubs,
slipped into a thicket. No photograph |
Jugal Tiwari pers. comm. 2019 |
40 |
xi.2008 |
Near Mata-no-Madh of Gugliya
Rakhal |
SL |
SN |
Seen a Caracal. No photograph |
Pankaj N. Joshi in litt. 2019 |
41 |
iii.2008 |
Kotdi, Mandvi |
SL |
SN |
Caracal killed in a conflict
with a shepherd and his dog. Caracal seen three times before this incident.
Dead Caracal photographed |
Deepak Goswami pers. comm. 2019 |
42 |
2006–2007 |
Naliya |
SL |
SN |
Photographed a Caracal |
Yogendra Shah in litt. 2020 |
43 |
xi.2005 |
Narayan Sarovar Wildlife
Sanctuary |
SL |
SN |
A team of forest officials of
Gujarat spotted a pair of Caracals, photographed |
Nair (2006) |
Table
7. Reports of the Caracal in Madhya Pradesh from 2001 onwards
No. on map |
Date |
Location |
Habitat type |
Water source |
Type of report |
Source |
Chhattarpur District |
||||||
44 |
2007–2008 |
Between the Chhattarpur and Jhansi roads The distance between the roads is 110km and the exact
location was not specified |
TF |
SN |
Caracal road kill, took a picture on his phone but
apparently lost it. He shared the same image with H.S. Pabla |
Forest officer L.K. Chaudhary pers. comm. 2019 |
Bhind District |
||||||
45 I |
11.iv.2001 |
Agricultural land between Bijapuri, Lavan,
Chandupura, Karke Ka Pura and Goplapura |
RH |
SN |
Spotted by Khudsar (2004) in a ravine area |
Khudsar (2014) |
45 II |
26.iii.2001 |
Agricultural land between Bijapuri, Lavan,
Chandupura, Karke Ka Pura and Goplapura |
RH |
SN |
Spotted by Khudsar (2004) in a ravine area |
Khudsar (2014) |
For figures
& images - - click here
References
Acharjyo, L.N. (1998).
The six cats of Orissa. ENVIS Bulletin of Wildlife & Protected Areas
1(2): 18–20.
Allen, G.O. (1919). Caracal
(Felis caracal) and Hunting Leopard (Cynailurus jubatus) in
Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society
26(3): 1041.
Arnold, E. (1893).
The Book of Good Counsels: From the Sanskrit of the Hitopadesa. W.H.
Allen, London, 184pp.
Asrari, R., V.V. Kumar,
A.K.R. Mahato & R.K. Raman (2013–14). Status
and Distribution of Caracal (Caracal caracal) in Gujarat, p. 21. In: Annual
Report: 2013–14. Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology, Bhuj, Kutch, Gujarat,
45pp.
Avgan, B., P. Henschel &
A. Ghoddousi (2016). Caracal caracal (errata
version published in 2016). In: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species:
e.T3847A102424310. Downloaded on 20 June 2020. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-2.RLTS.T3847A50650230.en
Baker, S.W. (1890).
Wild Beasts and Their Ways. Reminiscences of Europe, Asia, Africa and
America. Macmillan, London, New York, 520pp.
Ball, V. (1874).
On the Avifauna of the Chutia Nagpur Division, S.W. Frontier of Bengal. Stray
Feathers 2(4&5): 355–376.
Behura, B.K. & G.B. Guru
(1969).
Wildlife of Orissa. Prakruti-Utkal University Journal Science
6(2): 95–96.
Bell, W.M. (1907).
Contributions to the Museum. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 17(4):
1043–1045.
Blanford, W.T. (1888–91).
Felis caracal. The Caracal. Pp. 88–89 in: The Fauna of British India,
including Ceylon and Burma. Mammalia. Taylor and Francis, London, 617pp.
Blochmann, H. (1873).
The Ain i Akbari by Abul Fazl I Mubarik I Allami. Volume 1. Asiatic
Society of Bengal, Calcutta, 1556pp.
Blyth, E. (1842).
Monograph of the species of Lynx. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal
11(128): 740–760.
Brander, D. (1923).
Wild Animals in Central India. E. Arnold & Co. London, 296pp.
Brandon-Jones,
C. (1997). Edward Blyth, Charles Darwin, and the Animal Trade in nineteenth
century India and Britain. Journal of the History of Biology 30: 145-178
Briggs, I.G. (1861).
The Nizam, his History and Relations with the British Government. Volume
II. B. Quaritch, London, 440pp.
Buffon,
G.L. (1761). Le Caracal, pp.
262–267. In: Histoire naturelle générale et particulière, avec la
description du Cabinet du Roi. Tome 9. Imprimerie Royale, Paris, 376pp.
Burke,
W.S. (1920). The Indian
Field Shikar Book. Fifth edition, Thacker, Spink & Co., Calcutta and
Simla, 406pp.
Capeller,
C. (1891). A Sanskrit-English Dictionary:
Based Upon the St. Petersburg Lexicons. Karl J. Trübner, Strassburg, 672pp.
Chakraborty,
R. (2004). Reports of the ZSI:
A catalogue of Mammalian Exhibits of Zoological Galleries of the Indian Museum.
Zoological Survey of India. Kolkata, 99pp.
Chakraborty,
S. & V.C. Agarwal (2000).
Mammalia, pp. 15–84. In: Baqri, Q.H. (ed.) Fauna of Gujarat (Part 1).
State Fauna Series No. 8. Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta, 469pp.
Chakravarty,
K.K. & R.G. Bednarik (1997).
Indian Rock Art and its Global Context. Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav
Sanghralya. Motilal Banarsidas Private Publishers Ltd., Delhi, 228pp.
Champion,
H.G. & S.K. Seth (1968). A
Revised Survey of the Forest Types of India. Manager of Publication, Delhi, 377pp.
Chand,
R.C., S.K. Srivastava
& J. Singh (2017). Changing Structure of Rural Economy of India
Implications for Employment and Growth. Discussion Paper. National
Institution for Transforming India, Government of India, New Delhi, 26pp.
Corbett,
G.B. & J.E. Hill (1992). The
mammals of the Indo-Malayan region: A systematic review. Oxford University
Press, Oxford, 488pp.
Das,
P.K., J.P. Lal & V.C. Agrawal (1993). Mammalia, pp. 143–180. In: Ghosh, A.K. (ed.). Fauna
of Orissa, Part 4. State Fauna Series Issue 1. Zoological Survey of India,
Calcutta, 200pp.
David,
A. (1967). Sariska: A Lonely
Sanctuary. Cheetal, Journal of Wildlife Preservation Society of India
9(2): 49.
De
Brett, E.A. (1909). Bastar
State. P. 32 in: Central Provinces Gazetteers: Chhattisgarh Feudatory States.
The Times Press, Bombay, 354pp.
Desai,
G.H. & A.B. Clarke (1923).
Chapter II. Gazetteer of the Baroda State 1: 73.
Desai,
H.S. (1974). The Forest of
Gir. Sorath Research Society, Junagarh, Gujarat, 84pp.
Dhar,
I. & M. Dhakad (2018). Wildlife
Warriors: The Village Wildlife Volunteers Programme. Tiger Watch &
Forest Department of Rajasthan, Rajasthan, 95pp.
Dharmakumarsinhji,
K.S. (1978). The Changing
Wildlife of Kathiawar. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 75(3):
632–650.
Divyabhanusinh
(1987). Note on the Sighting of
a Caracal (Felis caracal) at the Sariska National Park. Journal of
Bombay Natural History Society 84(1): 201.
Divyabhanusinh
(1993). The End of a Trail:
The Cheetah in India.
Banyan Books, Bombay, 248 pp.
Dodsworth,
P.T.L. (1913). Notes on some
mammals found in the Simla District. The Simla Hill States, and Kalka and
Adjacent country. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 22(4):
726–748.
Drake-Brockman,
H.E. (1892). ‘A Lynx attacking
a man’. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 7(4): 548.
Farhadinia,
M.S., H. Akbari, M. Beheshti & A. Sadeghi (2007). Ecology and status of the Caracal, Caracal caracal, in
Abbasabad Naein Reserve, Iran. Zoology in the Middle East 41: 5–9.
Fitzgerald,
S.V. & A.E. Nelson (1911). Central
Provinces District Gazetteers Amraoti District, Volume A. Gazetteer Department, Government of
Maharashtra, Bombay, 437pp.
Forsyth,
J. (1889). The Highlands of
Central India: Notes on their Forests and Wild Tribes Natural History and
Sports. Chapman & Hall Ltd. London, 388pp.
Foster,
W. (1924). Hunting with Caracal in
the 17th Century. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 30(2):
466–467.
Foster,
W. (1926). John Company.
John Lane, London, 285pp.
Ghoddousi,
A., T. Ghadirian & H. Fahimi (2009). Status of Caracal in Bahram’gur Protected Area, Iran. Cat
News 50: 10–13.
Ghosh,
M. (1982). The review on the
remains of ‘Domestic Cat’ from Harappa, Nagda and Nagarjunakonda in Indian
subcontinent. Indian Museum Bulletin 17: 57–61.
Gogate,
M.G. (1998). Smaller cats of
Maharashtra. ENVIS Bulletin of Wildlife & Protected Areas 1(2):
24–28.
Government
of India (2019). Rajasthan, pp.
175–18. In: Wastelands Atlas of India, Department of Land Resources, Ministry
of Rural Development, 247pp.
Government
of Punjab (1904). Part
1. Kangra Proper: Fauna, p. 12. In: Punjab District Gazetteers Volume XA.
Punjab Government Press, Lahore, 338pp.
Gritsina,
M.A. (2019). The Caracal Caracal
caracal Schreber, 1776 (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) in Uzbekistan. Journal
of Threatened Taxa 11(4): 13470–13477. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4375.11.4.13470-13477
Gupta,
A. (2018). How India Manages Its
National Security. Penguin Randomhouse India Pvt. Ltd., 440pp.
Gupta,
V.K. (2019). Prehistoric Art of
Braj Region: Based on Study of Rock Shelters Near Fatehpur Sikri. Heritage:
Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 7: 373–396.
Hamilton,
A. (1727). A New Account of the
East Indies. Volume 1. John Marsman, Edinburgh, 396pp.
Harting,
J. (1883). An Arabic Treatise on
Hunting, pp. 362–370. In: Essays on Sport and Natural History. Horace
Cox, London, 485pp.
Heerden,
H.V. (2004). Caracal. Flickr,
electronic version at https://www.flickr.com/photos/hvhe1/252592577 accessed on
23June 2019.
Holdsworth,
R.L. (1960). Our Less Known
Species: The Caracal. Cheetal: A Journal of the Wild Life Preservation
Society of India 3(1): 9.
Holdsworth,
R.L. (1962). Editorial. Cheetal:
A Journal of the Wild Life Preservation Society of India 5(2): 10.
Jerdon,
T.C. (1874). The Mammals of
India: A Natural History of All the Animals Known to Inhabit Continental India.
John Wheldon, London, 335pp.
Joshi,
P., M. Koldiya & N.B. Gajera (2015). The chase still continues: Caracal caracal. guide.net
(Quarterly e-newsletter of the Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology) 4(2): 1–2.
Karanth,
K.U.K. & M. Ramaswamy (2006).
The Many Ways to Count a Cat. P.111 in: A View from the Machan: How Science
Can Save the Fragile Predator. Permanent Black, 153pp.
Kazmi,
R. (2020). Where the Wild Cat
Roams: On Spotting the Black-Eared one. Roundglass Sustain. Electronic
version at https://round.glass/sustain/species/caracal/ accessed on 02 September 2020.
Kolipaka,
S.S. (2011). Caracals in
India: The forgotten cats. IBD Press, Dehradun, 84 pp.
Khandal,
D. & D. Khandal (2017). Unexplored
Ranthambhore: Wolf, Jackal, Fox, Hyena. Dhonk Craft, Sawai Madhopur, 238pp.
Khudsar,
F.A. (2004). Sighting of Caracal
in the Chambal ravines of Bhind district. Madhya Pradesh. Journal of the
Bombay Natural History Society 101(1): 149.
Kitchener,
A. (1991). The natural history
of the wild cats. Christopher Helm Publishers, London, 280pp.
Lydekker,
R. (1907). The Caracal (Felis
caracal), pp. 339–341. In: The Game Animals of India, Burma, Malaya, and
Tibet. Rowland Ward limited, London, 409pp.
MacDonald,
D. (1893). Proceedings of the
Meeting held on 23rd February, 1893. Journal of the Bombay
Natural History Society 8(1): 157–159.
Maurice,
S.D. (1953). Mughal Painting
Under Akbar the Great. Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12(2): 46–51.
Maxwell,
N.N. (1914). Saugor Hog
Hunting. P. 288 in: Wardrop, A.E. Modern Pig-sticking. Macmillan and Co.
Ltd., London, 304pp.
McMaster,
A.C. (1871). No. 26 Felis Caracal.
P. 37 in: Notes on Jerdon’s Mammals of India. Higginbotham & Co.,
Madras, 266pp.
Millard,
W.S. (1908). Contributions to
the Museum. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 18(4):
938–940.
Moqanaki,
E.M., M.S. Farhadinia, M. Tourani & H. Akbari (2016). The Caracal in Iran – current state of knowledge and
priorities for conservation. Cat News Special Issue 10: 27–32.
Mukherjee,
S. (1998). Cats: Some large,
many small. ENVIS Bulletin of Wildlife & Protected Areas 1(2): 5–13.
Mukherjee,
S., S.P. Goyal, A.J.T. Johnsingh & M.R.P.L. Pitman (2004). The importance of rodents in the diet of Jungle Cat (Felis
chaus), Caracal (Caracal caracal) and Golden Jackal (Canis aureus)
in Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan, India. Journal of Zoology 262(4):
405–411. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0952836903004783
Nair, A. (2006).
Caracal spotted and photographed in Kutch after 10 years. Outlook, The
Newswire. Electronic version at
https://www.outlookindia.com/newswire/story/Caracal-spotted-and-photographed-in-kutch-after-10-years/377286
accessed on 21 December 2019.
Newall, D.J.F. (1887).
The Highlands of India strategicaly considered: With Special Reference to
Their Colonization as Reserve Circles. Volume II. Harrison and Sons,
London, 274pp.
Nowell, K. & P. Jackson
(1996). Caracal, Caracal caracal (Schreber,
1776), pp. 50–53. In: Wild cats. Status survey and conservation action plan.
IUCN Cat Specialist Group, Gland, Switzerland, 421pp.
O’Malley, L.S.S. (1909).
Sambalpur. Bengal District Gazetteers. The Bengal Secretariat Book
Depot, Calcutta, 232pp.
Parashar, M.D. (2020). Siyagosh
of Ranthambhore: Report on Status of Species.
Forest Department of Rajasthan, Rajasthan, 5pp.
Parihar, A.S. (1989).
Caracal (Felis caracal Schreber) sighted in Panna forests. Journal of
the Bombay Natural History Society 86(2): 237.
Parks, F. (1850).
Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque, During Four and Twenty
Years in the East; with Revelations of Life in the Zenana. Volume 1. Pelham
Richardson, London, 479pp.
Phipson, H.M. (1888).
Contributions to the Museum. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society
3(3): 199–201.
Phipson, H.M. (1889).
Proceedings of the Meeting of 5th May 1889. Journal of the Bombay
Natural History Society 4(2): 161–162.
Phipson, H.M. (1891).
Proceedings of the Meeting on 1st July, 1891. Journal of the
Bombay Natural History Society 6(2): 278–281.
Pocock, R.I. (1939).
Genus Caracal Gray, pp. 306–309. In: The Fauna of British India,
Ceylon and Burma, Volume I Mammalia. Taylor and Francis, Ltd. London,
464pp.
Prakash, I. (1960).
The present status of the Caracal (Felis caracal Schreber). Journal
of the Bombay Natural History Society 58(3): 790–791.
Prakash, I. (1994a). Biodiversity
Conservation in the Thar Desert. The Indian Forester 120(10): 175.
Prakash, I. (1994b).
Mammals of the Thar Desert. Pawan Kumar Scientific Publishers, Jodhpur,
114pp.
Prakash, S., A.K. Mitra,
I.M. Momin, E.N. Rajagopal, S. Basu, M. Collins, A.G. Turner, K. Achuta Rao
& K. Ashok (2015). Seasonal intercomparison of
observational rainfall datasets over India during the southwest monsoon season.
International Journal of Climatology 35(9): 2326–2338. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4129
Prater, S.H. (1948). The
Book of Indian Animals. Bombay Natural History
Society, Bombay, 326pp.
Punjab Government (1884).
Chapter 1 – The District. Wild animals and game. Pp. 20–21 in: Gazetteer of
the Jhang District, 1883-84. Arya Press, Lahore, 204pp.
Ranjitsinh, M.K. (1999).
Sighting of the Caracal Caracal caracal in Jalore District. Rajasthan. Journal
of the Bombay Natural History Society 96(3): 464.
Ranjitsinh, M.K. (2017).
A Life with Wildlife: From Princely India to the Present. Harper Collins
Publishers India, Noida, 380pp.
Ranjitsinh, M.K. & Y.V.
Jhala (2010). Assessing the potential for
reintroducing the Cheetah in India. Wildlife Trust of India, Noida &
Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 179pp.
Rice, W. (1884).
Chapter XII, pp. 216–217. In: Indian Game: From Quail to Tiger. W.H.
Allen & Co., London, 221pp.
Rice, W. (1857).
Chapter XIII, p. 117. In: Tiger-shooting in India: Being an account of
hunting experiences on foot in Rajpootana, during the hot seasons from 1850 to
1854. Smith, Elder and Co., London, 219pp.
Rodgers, W.A., H.S. Panwar
& V.B. Mathur (2002). Wildlife Protected Area
Network in India: A review. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 44pp.
Rose, H.A., J. Coldstream,
R.E. Younghusband, E.R. Abbott, P.J. Fagan, H. Calvert, R.M. Lowis, M.R. Das,
R.S. Sharma, G. Singh, M.M. Din & J.P. Thompson (1908). The
Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908).
Provincial Series Punjab; Volume 1, Part 12. Superintendent of Government
Printing, Calcutta, 483pp.
Roy, P.D. & A.K. Singhvi
(2016). Climate variation in the Thar Desert since
the Last Glacial Maximum and evaluation of the Indian monsoon. TIP Revista
Especializada en Ciencias Químico-Biológicas 19(1): 32–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.recqb.2016.02.004
Rungta, K. (2017).
Breeding Siyagosh, pp. 80–87. In: Stalking Tigers on foot. The Marine
Sports, Mumbai, 186pp.
Saleem, S. (2014).
Prehistoric Cupule Site at Senetary: Recent Prehistoric Investigations in
Kachhchh District, Gujarat. Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies
in Archaeology 2: 449–456.
Sen, N.N. (1959). The
present status of the Indian Lynx. Journal of the Bombay Natural History
Society 56(2): 317.
Sharma, M.L. (2014). Rock
Art of Rajasthan, pp. 43–74. In: History and Culture of Rajasthan: from
earliest times upto 1956 A.D. Centre for Rajasthan Studies, University of
Rajasthan, Jodhpur, 627pp.
Sharma, S.K. (2015).
Todgarh-Raoli Wildlife Sanctuary: Some historical facts about the presence of
Tigers during last century, pp. 1–4. In: Anushandhan (Vigyan Sodh
Patrika), Volume 1, Allahabad, 292pp.
Sharma, V. & K. Sankhala
(1984a). Vanishing Cats of Rajasthan, pp. 117–135.
In: Jackson, P. (ed.). The Plight of the Cats. Proceedings from the Cat
Specialist Group meeting in Kanha National Park. IUCN Cat Specialist Group,
Bougy-Villars, Switzerland, 84pp.
Sharma, V. & K. Sankhala
(1984b). Vanishing Cats of Rajasthan. Cheetal,
Journal of the Wildlife Preservation Society of India 26(1): 5–23.
Srivastava, B.P. (1959). The
present status of the Indian Lynx (Caracal caracal). Journal of the
Bombay Natural History Society 57(1): 214–215.
Singh, A. (1975).
A rare animal of the cat family - Caracal (Felis caracal). Cheetal,
Journal of the Wildlife Preservation Society of India 16(3): 51.
Singh, A., J. Singh & P.
Gandhi (2011). Ranthambhore: The Tiger’s Realm.
Sujan Art Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 151pp.
Singh, H.S. (1998).
Reports of small cats in Gujarat. ENVIS Bulletin of Wildlife & Protected
Areas 1(2): 22–23.
Singh, H.S. & V.C. Soni
(1999). Status of Wildlife in Wild Ass Sanctuary
(Little Rann of Kutch, Gujarat State, India). The Indian Forester
125(10): 1025.
Singh,
R., Q. Qureshi, P.R. Krausman, K. Sankar & S.P. Goyal (2014).
Population and habitat characteristics of Caracal in semi-arid landscape,
western India. Journal of Arid Environments 103: 92–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2014.01.004
Singh, R., Q. Qureshi, P.R.
Krausman, K. Sankar & S.P. Goyal (2015).
Estimating occupancy and abundance of Caracal in a semi-arid habitat, Western
India. European Journal of Wildlife Research 61(6): 915–918. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-015-0956-y
Sinha, D. & R. Chaudhary
(2019). Wildlife Inventory and Proposal of Sloth
Bear Conservation Reserve in Marihan-Sukrit-Chunar Landscape of Mirzapur Forest
Division, Uttar Pradesh. Vindhyan Ecology and
Natural History Foundation, Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, 73pp.
Sinha, N.K. (1995). Mammalia,
p. 209. In: Ghosh, A.K.(ed.). Fauna of Western Himalaya. Volume 1. Uttar
Pradesh. Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta, 359pp.
Skinner, J.D. & C.T.
Chimimba (2005). Caracal caracal (Schreber, 1776)
Caracal, pp. 397–401. In: The Mammals of the Southern African Subregion,
Third edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 814 pp.
Sterndale, R.A. (1884).
No. 218. Felis Caracal, pp. 198–199. In: Natural History of the
Mammalia of India and Ceylon, Thacker, Spink & Co., Calcutta, 540pp.
Stockley, C.H. (1928).
The Caracal (Felis caracal), pp. 180–181. In: Big Game Shooting in
the Indian Empire. Constable and Comp. Ltd., London, 200pp.
Stoliczka, F. (1872).
Notice of the mammals and Birds inhabiting Kachh. Journal of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal 41(3): 211–258.
Stuart, C.T. (1984).
The extent of occurrence and status of Felis caracal Schreber, 1776. Säugetierkundliche
Mitteilungen 31(2/3): 197–204.
Sunquist, M. & F.
Sunquist (2002). Caracal Caracal caracal
(Schreber, 1776), pp. 37–47. In: Wild Cats of the World. University of
Chicago Press, Chicago, 452pp.
Taylor, J.C. (1961).
Editorial Notes. Cheetal, Journal of Wildife Preservation Society of India
4(1): 53.
Thackston, W.M. (1999). The
Jahangirnama – Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India.
Oxford University Press, New York, 532pp.
Thapar, V., R. Thapar &
Y. Ansari (2013). Exotic Aliens: The Lion
and the Cheetah in India. Aleph Book Company, New Delhi, 304pp.
Thurston, E. (1913).
Chapter 10. Fauna, p. 86. In: The Madras Presidency with Mysore, Coorg and
The Associated States. Provincial Geographies of India. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, 293pp.
Tian, H., K. Banger, T. Bo
& V. Dadhwal (2014). History of land use in
India during 1880–2010: Large-scale land transformations reconstructed from
satellite data and historical archives. Global Planetary Change 121:
78–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2014.07.005
Vanak, A.T., A.J. Hiremath,
S. Krishnan, T. Ganesh & N.D. Rai (2017).
Filling in the (forest) blanks: the past, present and future of India’s savanna
grasslands, pp. 88–93. In: Hiremath, A.J, N.D. Rai & A. Siddharta (eds.). Transcending
Boundaries: Reflecting on Twenty Years of Action and Research at ATREE.
Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Karnataka, 189pp.
Verma, T. (1994).
Karkhanas under the Mughals from Akbar to Aurangzeb: A Study in Economic
Development. Pragati Publication, New Delhi, 181pp.
Vigne, G.T. (1842).
Chita-hunting, pp. 41–42. In: Travels in Kashmir, Ladakh, the Countries
Adjoining the Mountain-Course of the Indus, and the Himalaya, North of the
Panjab. Volume 1. Henry Colburn, London, 456pp.
Vira, R., K.N. Dave & L.
Chandra (1953). Indian Scientific
Nomenclature of the Mammals of India, Burma and Ceylon.
International Academy of Indian Culture, Nagpur, 187pp.
Waddington, C.W. (1933).
Indian India: As Seen by a Guest in Rajasthan. Jarrold, London, 168pp.
Wakankar, V.S. (2005).
Painted Rock Shelters of India. Directorate of Archaeology, Archives,
and Museums, Government of Madhya Pradesh, 420pp.
Wakankar, V.S. (2008).
Indian Prehistory as Revealed by Excavations, Explorations, and Rock Art Study
at Bhimbetka and in the adjoining Regions. Purakala 18: 65–72.
Ward, A.E. (1923).
Game animals of Kashmir and Adjacent Hill Province. Journal of the Bombay
Natural History Society 29(1): 23–35.
Ward, G.C. & D.R. Ward
(1993). Tiger-Wallahs: Encounters with the men
who tried to save the greatest of the great cats. Harper Collins
Publishers, New York, 170pp.
Wardrop, A.E. (1914).
Chapter VII. The Meerut Tent Club, p. 106. In: Modern Pig-sticking.
Macmillan and Co. Ltd., London, 304pp.
Wroughton,
R.C. (1912). Bombay Natural History Society’s Mammal Survey
of India. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 21(3): 820–851.