How a wandering tiger has raised Gujarat's hopes of hosting the wild cat again

India Today

2 days ago

In the hilly folds of Gujarat's Ratanmahal Wildlife Sanctuary, a whisper of the wild stirred the air in February. A sub-adult male Royal Bengal Tiger stepped cautiously onto the sanctuary's soil, marking the first confirmed tiger sighting in Gujarat since the 1980s.This was not a fleeting visit. The tiger, roughly 3-5 years old, was not just passing through but exploring, perhaps seeking a home. Cut to May. Camera traps captured a tiger's sinuous movements through the sanctuary's core as it made its first kill—a testament to its intent to stay, at least for a while.advertisementTwo months after the kill and the wild cat's repeated sighting, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is evaluating Ratanmahal for inclusion in the Tigers Outside Tiger Reserves (TOTR) project, aiming to create protected corridors and bolster prey populations. The sanctuary's hilly terrain, home to over 100 sloth bears and a modest prey base, is deemed suitable but needs enrichment with chital and deer breeding programmes.Community awareness campaigns are also underway to mitigate human-wildlife conflict, vital in a region where villagers live close to the forest's edge. If a female tiger joins this lone male, a breeding pair could establish a nascent population, a historic milestone for Gujarat, which could become the only state hosting the 'big cat trinity'—lion, leopard and tiger.
This is not the first tiger to wander into Gujarat in recent years, but perhaps the most significant. In 2019, another tiger, traced to the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, trekked 300 km to Mahisagar district, only to die of starvation within weeks. This incident underscored the challenges of sustaining tigers in Gujarat.The Ratanmahal tiger, however, seems different—vital, purposeful, its presence sparking a renewed conservation dialogue. It likely traversed the Vindhyachal corridor, a historic pathway stretching from Madhya Pradesh's tiger-rich reserves like Ratapani and Kathiwada through the hilly borderlands into Gujarat's Dahod district. This corridor, a patchwork of forests and fragmented landscapes, allows tigers to roam between states, driven by Madhya Pradesh's booming tiger population of 785, pushing sub-adults to seek new territories.The Ratanmahal tiger, believed to hail from Kathiwada or Jhabua, moved fluidly between Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, its tracks fading and reappearing across the border.However, Gujarat's history with tigers is a tale of loss. In the early 1960s, the state harboured about 50 tigers, primarily in the Dangs forests of the state's south. By 1972, the first tiger census counted just eight, all in Dangs. A 1979 census recorded seven tigers, and by 1983, the last documented tiger had been shot by a poacher near Waghai.The 1992 census declared Gujarat had no tigers. Habitat loss, rampant poaching and a dwindling prey base—chital, sambar and wild boars decimated by human encroachment—drove this extinction. Unlike the Asiatic Lion, which clung to the Gir forests, tigers lacked sufficient prey and connected habitats, thus fading from Gujarat's jungles.advertisementTigers in India, estimated to number 3,682, have been venturing into new regions around the country. In Rajasthan's Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve, tigers are slowly repopulating, with sightings in Darrah and Jawahar Sagar sanctuaries. Uttar Pradesh's Ranipur Wildlife Sanctuary, declared a tiger reserve in 2022, is witnessing early tiger activity.In Tamil Nadu, the Nilgiri forests' buffer zones reported seven tiger sightings in 2013-14, a first for the area. Madhya Pradesh's Satpura National Park and Odisha's Similipal Tiger Reserve are also witnessing increased tiger movement, particularly in less-explored zones like Churna and northern Similipal. These expansions, driven by robust conservation and wildlife corridors, mirror the Ratanmahal phenomenon, though challenges such as poaching and habitat fragmentation persist.The Ratanmahal tiger's journey underscores the importance of wildlife corridors in allowing genetic exchange and territorial expansion. It also highlights the fragility of such gains—without prey, protection and community support, tigers may not stay.Gujarat's forest department is intensifying monitoring with camera traps and patrols while the NTCA pushes for habitat restoration. The state's past failure to act on tiger reintroduction proposals in the 1980s serves as a cautionary tale. Today, with renewed focus on prey base enhancement and corridor protection, will Gujarat succeed in reclaiming its lost stripes?advertisementSubscribe to India Today Magazine- EndsMust Watch