The Hindu Business Line : Will Gujarat's `pride' hurt Gir?

ALL may not be well with the tigers, but there is good news for animal lovers from Gir, the only natural habitat of the Asiatic lion in the world. According to a lion census carried out at Sasan Gir in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, the lion population in the national park has climbed to 359 compared to 327 in 2001.

The census, ordered by the State Wildlife Department following reports of a declining tiger population in the country, was carried out between April 21 and 28, and the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, addressed a press conference to share the results.

The Gir National Park is, in fact, overflowing and the lions have spilled over to adjoining areas. A few years ago, a pride of lions had moved to the coast near Veraval, a town about 35 km from Sasan Gir. That was the first time the lion was found to be adapting itself to a coastal environment. "We are identifying new areas which can also be designated as lion sanctuary. Already, the lions are moving outside the Gir sanctuary and national park areas," the Gujarat Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, M.L. Sharma, told Business Line from Gandhinagar. Gujarat is, however, still not willing to relocate the lions in any other part of the country. Wildlife experts have been demanding that the lion population should be spread out to improve its survival, in case an epidemic strikes Gir.

Madhya Pradesh has been requesting that some lions be moved to its forests. "We understand our lions best. Previous experiments at shifting the lions to other locations have failed. In the 60s, some lions were moved to Chandraprabha in Uttar Pradesh and they perished. We don't want a repeat of that mishap," Sharma said. The official explained that the areas where Madhya Pradesh wants to keep the lions are inhabited by tigers and the two big cat species never exist together. "We cannot take chances. Lions and tigers sit on top of the food chain and they cannot be relocated so easily. They have to undergo a proper acclimatisation process. Even if lions are shifted to a new forest area, it cannot be made a safari destination and have tourists all over the place," he said.

On the census, Sharma said that the department used the visual count method and had involved 1,000 people that included local experts and representatives from the Wildlife Institute of India and a non-Government organisation. He denied that the Forest Department had used the controversial "bait method" where animals are used as bait to attract the lions. Local newspapers had earlier claimed that the Department officials had tied up a couple of buffaloes as bait for the lions. "We divided the entire sanctuary and national park into blocks and the volunteers tracked the lions. We made notes on the individual features of the lions and data was compared to avoid duplication as lions move from an area to another," he added.

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