Gujarat is roaring back onto India’s tiger map. And it’s doing so with some statement.
Gujarat has won official recognition by the 2026 All-India Tiger Estimation (AITE) for having tiger presence.
Sightings in the Ratanmahal Wildlife Sanctuary in Dahod have reinforced its claim of being a state that celebrates and nurtures wildlife.
According to reports, a tiger almost four years old has made the state its postal address (figuratively that is).
We may recall that in 2019, a tiger entered Gujarat, generating considerable media attention. In the early 20th century, history records, Gujarat was the only place in the world with four big cats: lion, leopard, tiger, and cheetah.
Now, the presence of this four-year-old tiger may have prompted plans for a formal camera-trap census along the Gujarat-Madhya Pradesh border.
Officials told media outlets that the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) had issued a letter mandating tiger conservation measures in Ratanmahal.
The tiger, they noted, began moving along the Ratanmahal-Madhya Pradesh border in mid-February.
It has since settled in the area, leading state forest authorities to closely monitor its movements and implement corrective measures to ensure its long-term survival. Photographic evidence has convinced the NTCA to reinstate Gujarat on the national tiger map and include it in the upcoming census.
An official associated with the AITE said the census had begun and that the team would soon visit Gujarat to document the tiger. Since it had not yet been tagged, the official added, it would be tagged during the census, and state forest officers would be trained on the stripe software system, allowing them to track the tiger’s movements not just in Gujarat but across the country.
The last tiger census in Gujarat was conducted in 1989. That was when officials recorded pug marks but failed to sight any tigers.
The state was excluded from the 1992 census and removed from the list of tiger-presence states.
Since then, there has been only one confirmed sighting, in 2019, though that tiger survived just 15 days.
An NTCA official said the four-year-old tiger had maintained a stable presence in Ratanmahal for nearly ten months, backed by consistent photographic and CCTV documentation. The official noted that this extended stay, rather than a brief passage, made Gujarat’s reinstatement on the tiger map both justified and necessary.
Officials also plan to survey Madhya Pradesh’s Alirajpur, an area frequently visited by the Ratanmahal tiger, to check for the presence of a female tiger.
An NTCA official reportedly said that Gujarat had requested assistance in designating Ratanmahal as a tiger reserve.
The official added that before deciding on translocating a tigress, the NTCA would thoroughly assess the area’s ungulate population to ensure a sufficient prey base.
Meanwhile, plans are afoot to equip a radio collar during the forthcoming tiger census, enabling the monitoring of its activities. A survey will be conducted to assess the availability of prey animals and the potential presence of female tigers in the regions surrounding Ratanmahal, another report added.
Measures may be initiated to establish Ratanmahal as a tiger sanctuary if all the desired conditions are met.
Also Read: Tiger Returns To Gujarat After Three Decades, Settles In Ratanmahal Sanctuary https://www.vibesofindia.com/tiger-returns-to-gujarat-after-three-decades-settles-in-ratanmahal-sanctuary/
