Almost three decades after it was last sighted in Dangs, camera traps set up by the forest department has confirmed the presence of a tiger in Gujarat. With this, Gujarat has become the only state to have all the three big cats- tigers, lions and leopards.
Forest minister Ganpat Vasava at a press conference held on Tuesday said that a night vision camera trap set up in the Santrampur range of Mahisagar district has caught a tiger walking past it.
"The tiger is around seven to eight years old. We believe it is the same tiger that was first spotted by a school teacher two days ago in Gadhgam in Lunawada," said Vasava. He said that the government is also in touch with the forest department of all the three neighbouring states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. "All the three states have a tiger population and all of them share a border with Gujarat. As per our information one of the tigers from Ujjain is missing and it could be that this the same one," Vasava said.
He said the state government had also informed the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the next plan of action will be taken in consultation with them.
A teacher Mahesh Mahera had spotted the wildcat crossing the road near Boriya village and had captured it on phone. After the forest department came to know of it, it set about trying to trace the same. The department had during its search found pugmarks and nail marks of the animal but had not confirmed whether it was from the tiger or not.
Since its first sighting in February 6, it was only on Monday that the camera traps managed to confirm it. Santrampur where it was found is around 22 km away from where the school teacher first spotted it.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Akshay Saxena said evidences like pug marks and nail scars on trees had earlier confirmed their suspicion.
"Now we have the camera traps as proof. We will also be looking at the big kills in the area in recent times. The area has a good population of Nilgai as well a cattle like cow and buffaloes that are often the preferred prey of the tiger," said Saxena.
Some officials also said that it was important to check the earlier killings of big domestic animals in the area and that could perhaps point out if the tiger's presence was not a recent occurrence.
Vicky Chauhan, a wildlife enthusiast who was among those who helped the department set up the seven camera traps said it was a case of sheer luck. "Earlier too there were reports of tiger being sighted but there was nothing to confirm their presence. After we set up the camera we found it travelling through the area twice once at 9.15 on Monday night and then at 6.30 am today," said Chauhan.
"Some of the jungles in this area are so dense that it would be difficult for you to track the animals. But almost all animals take a certain path and we tried our luck by placing the cameras there," said Chauhan.
MIXED BAG
- 2,226: Number of tigers in India as per 2014 census.
- 523: Estimated number of lions as per the 2015 census in Gujarat
- 1395: Estimate number of leopards as per the last census in 2015
