Across western India, the caracal, once widespread across its dry landscapes, is now close to local extinction.

But the good news is that recent findings in Rajasthan have confirmed the presence of a breeding population.

In the Thar, where survival is already calibrated to scarcity, the stress was visible in the thinning margins for species that have long lived at the edge.

Among them was the caracal.

Known locally as Siyahgosh, or ‘black ear’, the elusive wild cat has moved so quietly through India’s ecological memory that, until recently, its near-disappearance went largely unnoticed.

Now, with climate pressures mounting, India has made a decisive move: a first-ever national masterplan to bring the species back from the brink.

At the centre of that plan is Rajasthan.

A fragile presence, finally confirmed

Fresh field evidence has confirmed what conservationists had only hoped for: the caracal persists in the dunes of Shahgarh Bulge and Ramgarh in Jaisalmer.

More importantly, it is not just surviving, but breeding.

Radio-collaring studies conducted along the India–Pakistan border have, for the first time, documented family groups.

For a species long thought to be functionally extinct in India, this changes the conversation.

Forest officials have verified at least three individuals in the region. It is a small number, but enough to shift policy........

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