LASBELA: After many years, a sighting of a Rare Persian leopard near Balochistan’s Nani Mandir has stirred excitement.
A temple visitor within Hingol National Park in Hinglaj, situated on the Makran coast in the southwest province, stumbled upon this elusive creature.
Chief Conservator of Wildlife in Balochistan, Sharifuddin Baloch, confirmed the sighting, noting that the Persian leopard was photographed on a cliff adjacent to Nani Mandir. Referred to as “phulang” within the Hingol National Park, this majestic animal is seldom spotted in the area.
Muhammad Moazzam Khan, a technical consultant for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), mentioned that Persian leopards are distributed across much of Balochistan, particularly along the coast.
However, he expressed concerns over their declining population due to hunting and scarcity of prey, including wild goats, urial goats, and chinkara gazelles, pushing them into the endangered species category.