PHOTO: National Geographic captures Mumbai's daring leopards

Mumbai, one of the India’s busiest cities, is not solely home to some 20 million people but a haven for dozens of leopards.

The big cats live in and around the metropolis’ Sanjay Gandhi National Park, often venturing into the dwellings of people who call the national park their home.

More often than not, these leopards come in conflict with humans residing the area with fatal repercussions.



Despite this, the big cats are surviving and surprisingly their clan is thriving, according to the latest census.

On November 19, National Geographic published a startling photograph of two leopard cubs wandering on a hilltop, and that too with Mumbai’s amazing cityscape in the background.

https://www.instagram.com/p/-RVOiDoVdh/?taken-by=natgeo

The picture was captured by photojournalist Steve Winter as part of an ongoing series of photos along with American non-fiction writer Richard Conniff’s National Geographic magazine story on the fascinating and ever evolving relationship – and perhaps the fight – between humans and leopards.



“India may be the real test of survival in a crowded world — and perhaps a model for it — because leopards live there in large numbers, outside protected areas,” Conniff writes, “and in astonishing proximity to people.”

The article originally appeared in Quartz India