Gujarat to count elusive tigers

Gujarat to count elusive tigers

Context

Census to be held 33 years after a big cat was spotted.

In Dang District of Gujarat

• The counting exercise in Dang will be part of the nationwide tiger census.
• Gujarat, which houses a rich population of lions, will now see an exercise to find out if tigers also inhabit the State.
• The last time a tiger was spotted in Gujarat was way back in 1985
• Now, over three decades later, a census has been planned next month to ascertain the presence of the striped animal in the forest of Dang district.

Proposal approved by NTCA

• The State forest department earlier sent a proposal to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for the census after some media reports suggested the presence of tigers in Dang.
• The proposal was approved by the NTCA, a statutory body under the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests

Earlier

Till the early 1980s, there were tigers in Gujarat, mainly inhabiting the forests of Dang, Narmada and Sabarkantha districts, he said.

The Last tiger

• The last tiger died in a road accident in Dang in 1985
• No tiger was seen in the State after that
• Local people generally confuse hyenas with tigers and that is how they assume there are tigers in Gujarat forests