The Gujarat Forest Department has launched a search in the Khanpur forest area of Mahisagar district following claims of a tiger being spotted in the area, an official said on Thursday.
The striped big cat had been spotted in the same district which borders Madhya Pradesh three years ago, but officials are skeptical about the latest reports of the sightings.
Residents of Pandarwada village told local reporters a few days ago that they had spotted a tiger. Some people also claimed that it has been hunting small animals like goats.
"We have launched a probe to ascertain the claims," said Deputy Conservator of Forest N V Chaudhary here.
"Apart from ordering foot patrolling in the forest, we have also installed night-vision cameras at four locations. Our teams are searching for vital clues such as pug marks, scat and scratch marks on trees which tigers make to mark territory," he said.
Chaudhary, however, also added that a preliminary probe made officials doubt the claims.
"None of the villagers has seen a tiger until now. Their stories of tiger killing their goats are also not true. I think they are mistaking a leopard or striped hyena for a tiger. But our probe is still on and we will also check CCTV footage of surrounding villages," he told reporters.
Notably, visual evidence had confirmed a tiger's presence in Lunawada tehsil of Mahisagar in February 2019. Before that, a tiger had been spotted in Gujarat last in 1989. Its carcass was found in the same forest area two weeks later.
(Inputs from PTI)
