However, Khandesh Nature Conservation Society (KNCS), working for tiger conservation in Jalgaon forest division, claims tigers were very much there but there was no serious monitoring by the department.
Wadoda range forest officer (RFO) DR Patil has been monitoring a tigress with a cub for the past three months. Patil also claims presence of a male tiger in his range. The tigers have made densely forested Purna backwaters their home.
"This is after 2001 that tigers have staged a comeback in Jalgaon division. In 2001, there was tigress with three cubs," Patil said. It seems tigers move from Melghat-Ambabarwa-Yawal-Western Ghats.
However, Abhay Ujagare and Vinod Patil of KNCS say presence of tigers is there in Jalgaon district since 1993 but due to lack of serious monitoring their existence could not be ascertained.
However, if official tiger figures are to be considered, there were 7 tigers in Yawal Wildlife Sanctuary in Jalgaon, followed by 3 in 1993, 4 in 1997 and 1 in 2001. Since then no tigers were recorded in the protected area (PA). Besides, the last official record of tigers in Jalgaon division was in 2005 when three tigers were recorded. Read the full report here.
Source: Vijay Pinjarkar, TNN, Nagpur.
