Gandhinagar: To ensure whether or not there were tigers in the forests of Dangs in Southern Gujarat bordering Maharashtra, a team of wildlife personnel from Gujarat would go reportedly to Assam to get training regarding counting of such big cats and then undertake a search cum counting operation in the forests bordering Maharashtra.

A wildlife official said that the central authority has given nod to this and after the training, the counting cum search would be conducted. Highly scientific and precise technology would be implemented to solve the mystery.

Notably wild life enthusiasts have claimed to have found evidence of presence of tigers in forests of Dangs Ahwa forests. Two policemen from Maharashtra posted at a Gujarat-Maharashtra border check post had also claimed to have spotted a tiger entering the Maharashtra forest area from Gujarat which came back Gujarat side.

Rajyasabha MP Parimal Nathwani had urged Gujarat government to conduct a scientific study or allow the central government’s investigation team to confirm the presence of tigers in the forests near Ahwa in Dang district.

After the animal census of 2001, the Gujarat government had officially declared tigers to have become extinct in the state.faeces of wild animals, collected in November 2016 from the forest area in Maharashtra around 2-3 km from Gujarat, had also reportedly indicated movement of tigers between two states.

Nathwani had claimed that the scats showed that at least a family of five tigers – one male, one female and three cubs – was present in the area.

DeshGujarat