Tiger spotted in Dahod sanctuary, Gujarat plays host to the holy trinity of big cats after years

The Print

22-05-2025

'It is a great thing to see our corridors working, and over the years many tigers have wandered in from nearby states,' Gujarat's Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) AP Singh said. 'What would be really good though is if a tiger decides to reside in our state.'
There's no evidence yet if the visiting tiger has chosen to make the state its home. The male tiger, whose name and age the Gujarat forest department is yet to reveal, wandered in from Madhya Pradesh Wednesday in search of new territory, officials said. Dahod district borders both Rajasthan and MP.
New Delhi: A Royal Bengal Tiger, an elusive species for the western state of Gujarat, was spotted in the Ratanmahal Sanctuary in Dahod district Thursday, the first sighting in six years. This makes Gujarat currently the only state, albeit temporarily, to host the three big cats at the same time—the Asiatic lion, the Indian leopard, and the Bengal tiger.
According to the Gujarat government's website, the last resident tiger seen in the state was in 1997. However, other sources like wildlife historian Raza Kazmi claim the date was as far back as 1983, when the last one was shot by a hunter in Waghai town near the Dang district.
In the 2001 tiger census, the central government officially declared the extinction of tigers in the state, it was long in the making thanks to hunting, poaching, and a loss of prey base.
In 2019, a tiger was spotted in the Mahisagar district of Gujarat, but it stayed for only two weeks before dying of starvation, according to Singh. Every tiger spotted in the state since 1997, though, has been a visitor from the nearby states—Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh or Rajasthan—which are teeming with tiger populations.
'One of the reasons why tigers went extinct from our state in the first place is because there was no prey base,' said Singh. 'This is why we're currently focused on increasing the prey base, breeding chital and deer. Once the prey is there, tigers will automatically come.'
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History of tigers in Gujarat
There was a time when Gujarat was the only region in the world where all four big cats could be found. But that was before the 1940s, according to a 2023 piece by Raza Kazmi, conservationist and wildlife historian.
Cheetahs became extinct in India, including Gujarat's Junagadh, in 1940, and slowly the state began losing its tigers too, mainly to hunting and poaching. By the time India's Project Tiger was implemented in 1973, it was already too late, with Gujarat's tiger population dropping to fewer than 10.
However, with India's overall tiger population increasing over the past few decades, Gujarat's hopes have gone up too. 'Tigers are like leopards—they are great adaptors,' said Susanta Nanda, a retired Indian Forest Service official from Odisha.
'From sugarcane fields of Uttar Pradesh to places like Arunachal Pradesh and even Sunderbans, they can accommodate anywhere as long as they have a prey base,' he added.
A P Singh says the forests in Southern Gujarat, which are dense enough to be habitable for tigers, are stocked with chital, wild boars and sambar deer. The state is also investing in breeding centres for these animals, so that anytime a tiger does stray in from other states, it chooses to establish its territory here.
'There have been a couple of other tiger sightings over the last five years, but most of them are lone male tigers that are passing through,' said Singh. 'When a female tiger comes, and when cubs come, is when you know a tiger population will be established.'
'We want to focus on establishing a prey base and well-connected corridors, and we know that tigers will come naturally,' said Singh. 'They're travelling beings, all we can do is host them well.'
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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