It’s official: Tiger has entered lion’s kingdom

AHMEDABAD: It’s officially confirmed now. A tiger has indeed entered the lions’ den in Gujarat – which is home to the Asiatic lion‘s last abode. Six days after a school teacher clicked a tiger on his mobile phone, the striped big cat was captured on Tuesday morning by the forest department in the area. The tiger is an adult, aged 5-7 years with pug-marks of 15-17cm diameter,” said RM Parmar, deputy conservator forest of Mahisagar district, who was in-charge of the search mission to locate the tiger.

The return of the big cat to Gujarat after 27 years – has brought elation in the wildlife circuit. “With the sighting of the tiger, Gujarat is now the only state in the country to have the lion, tiger and leopard,” said principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife) AK Saxena.

The PCCF said that the department is keeping a close watch on the tiger’s movement to ascertain if it is a guest from MP or Maharashtra or is a permanent resident, having made the Gujarat jungle its home. Saxena said the state will now have to include tiger in its wildlife plan.