Overview
- The young male, estimated at four to five years old, has been repeatedly captured on camera traps since late February in Dahod district’s Ratanmahal Wildlife Sanctuary.
- Forest officials say the animal was not translocated and likely moved in via connected forests across the border from Madhya Pradesh’s Jhabua–Kathiwada landscape.
- The Gujarat Forest Department has increased surveillance with field teams and cameras and has informed the National Tiger Conservation Authority for guidance.
- To support the predator’s survival, authorities have bolstered the prey base by relocating herbivores such as sambar and chital and by improving water and habitat management.
- Gujarat now hosts lions, leopards and a tiger, a shift that brings new management challenges and contrasts with a 2019 tiger sighting in Mahisagar that ended in the animal’s death.