This can only happen in India, as there are no tigers in Africa. 27 years ago, it seems that there were around the same number of tigers in India as there are now (around 3000) though some people put the estimate on the population of Bengal tigers within India at around 5000 (there is much variation on the estimate.
Gujarat hosts the Gir national park, currently the only place in the world to protect the Asiatic lion. It should be noted, that despite losing cases, and various other means, the state has failed to do as required and translocate a handful of lions to another reserve (Kuno nature reserve). It is not good, to have the whole wild population of a species like the Asiatic lion, in just one place (the Asiatic lion was once one of the widest spread mammals on the planet, ranging through Asia, north and west Africa and much of Southern Europe.
Also having 2274 leopards, this is the first tiger to return in some time.
However, for the first time in 2019, a tiger (which left its home, in Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary, in 2016) headed west. Oddly given the incredibly heavily populated human landscapes that it had to cross through, it was not seen again until it was seen in Gujarat. Unfortunately, it appears that within just 2 weeks the animal died, seemingly from starvation.
This is an odd reversal in the state, which when returned to Indian rule, the Asiatic lion was on the brink of extinction, in its only home. The tiger, conversely, was in a good state. Inconsistent sightings were made, the latest in 1992, but these were either roaming individuals, or occasional leopards that were misidentified.
Reintroduction has been proposed on a few occasions. It is frankly, incredible (in such a crowded country) that an animal as big as a tiger can travel large distances without being seen. Frankly, translocations should be made, in the same way that Asiatic lions should be translocated outside the state as well.
