Kuno: Asiatic Lion’s second home in making

Faiyaz A. Khudsar writes:

An ambitious project was started towards the end of the 20^th century to bring the roar of the Asiatic Lion (Panthera leo persica) back to the forest of Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS), Madhya Pradesh, in the new millennium.

It is important to understand why the Asiatic lion needs a second home. Many of the India’s wildlife species are threatened with extinction due to wide spread habitat destruction and poaching. The only place that the Asiatic lion is currently found in the wild is the Gir forest.

Study of conservation biology suggests that reintroduction of lions to KWS might bring full evolutionary potential and promote genetic vigor, and distribute the population, leaving the species less vulnerable to threats it now faces. The goal of reintroduction is to create a new, free ranging population of lions in areas where they once roamed, and have now completely disappeared. Reintroduction would help to ensure the long-term survival of the species.

With a view to preventing the extinction of the Asiatic lion, the Wildlife Institute of India conducted a survey in search of a new home for the big cat. The KWS in the northwest Madhya Pradesh was selected as the site to establish a second free ranging population of this mega carnivore.

Kuno river: Lifeline of the sanctuary
Photo: FA Khudsar

The KWS, located between latitudes of 25^°30’- 25^°53’E and longitude of 77^°07’-77^°26’N, is situated in the Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh. It is about 120 km. from Gwalior. An area of 344.686 sq. km. was set-aside as a Sanctuary in 1981. Since then this has been elevated to the Kuno Wildlife Division with an additional area of 900 sq. km. as a buffer area.

The Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary encompases a diverse range of habitat types which can be classified as:

1. Riparian habitat
2. Savanna woodland
3. Ravenous habitat
4. Plateau
5. Evacuated agricultural fields

Riparian habitat presents a specific ecosystem and acts as a corridor, connecting a mosaic of habitats viz. Plateau, valley and savanna woodland. Savannah woodlands are distributed throughout the sanctuary. These are grasslands interspersed with woodland and found in association with Boswellia serreta, Acacia catechu, A. leucopholea, Diospyros melanoxylon, Butea monosperma and other tree species. These woodlands provide coverage and support to the both prey & predators. Ravenous habitat supports smaller cats such as Caracal and other species such as porcupine, wolf, nilgai etc. Most of the Plateaus are dominated by Anogeissus pendula and A. latifolia.

The evacuated sites are expected to undergo various ecological changes. At present, they are being colonized by Zyziphous species, which has excellent food value for ungulates. This habitat may further give space to different species of grasses and ultimately become savanna woodland. These assumptions are made on the basis of changes seen taking place in the villages  (Tongra, Khairkacha and Kudikera), which were abandoned around 25-30 years ago. I have already initiated research to develop a proper monitoring system in Kuno and by the beginning of next year some results are expected.

Savannah woodland
Photo: FA Khudsar

Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary is home to Tiger, Leopard, Wolf and Wild Dog or Dhole. The major ungulates include Chital, Samber, Chinkara, Nilgai, Blackbuck and four-horned antelopes. Wild pig, the common langur and a large number of bird species can also be seen in the sanctuary. Recently, in April one leopard was seen with two cubs in the night. My observations suggest encouraging growth in the population of ungulates because with the increasing sightings of Chital, Samber and Nilgai, fawn sighting become quite frequent. I am working on the estimation of the ungulate population and expect first results by the beginning of next year.

After KWS was selected as the site for reintroduction of the Asiatic lion, one of the first tasks at hand was the sensitive job of relocation and rehabilitation of 24 villages from within the sanctuary and to create human-free environment for the lions. This task has been almost completed and development works are in progress at the rehabilitation site.

Relocated former Village
Photo: FA Khudsar

Rehabilitated Village
Photo: FA Khudsar

Consecutive droughts in last four years, followed by severe drought this year has negatively affected the entire development.  Present Divisional Forest Officer, J.S. Chauhan is very sensitive to the people's cause. Therefore, the Sanctuary management have created employment opportunities by initiating a variety of paid work programmes, especially for the watershed management and development at and around the rehabilitated site. Additionally, about 100 people were engaged as fire lookouts from the neighborhood communities. This serves two purposes; generating employment as well as creating a close network for fire protection within the Sanctuary. Another benefit of this work has been to bring the local communities closer to the Sanctuary management.

The Kuno river, which is the lifeline of the sanctuary, has been shrinking every day due to sporadic rain this year. What water is left is in the form of scattered pools. Such water scarcity has not been seen in the last 40-50 years. Therefore, Sanctuary management have created waterholes in the form of ponds and saucers.  Water has been brought from Kairkhoh, a perennial spring, covering about 8 kms by gravitational force through pipes to a pond known as Kemtalaiya. Additional saucers & small ponds have been created in between. In my opinion, it will reduce the travelling efforts of wild animals and therefore a proper energy budget of the animals would be maintained.

A systematic awareness campaign was also initiated to prepare neighborhood communities to live with a mega carnivore like lion - an animal that they have never encountered before. This campaign was initiated at various places in association with the Sanctuary management and the Biodiversity Conservation Trust of India (BCTI) in which information on the lion reintroduction program has been given. I have given exclusive slide shows at various places during this campaign, under the banner of BCTI, in which stress has been given to reduce the number of cattle. I tried to convince the community, with the help of slides, that a healthy population of big cats in the neighboring forest helps the community with the increased water level in their wells as well as increased soil moisture content in their agricultural fields. The Biodiversity Conservation Trust of India & the Sanctuary management will continue these awareness camps, taking place every three months.

Asiatic lion at Gir
Photo: JS Chauhan

Now, the Sanctuary is devoid of human presence and with the encouraging prey base sightings, there are a number of issues which need special attention for the larger lion reintroduction program. What we need, is an unified administrative and scientific set-up, amalgamated in the effort to ensure the establishment of second home for the Asiatic lion and for its long term survival.

Faiyaz A. Khudsar, a wildlife researcher & a founder member of the Biodiversity Conservation Trust of India, Delhi.
E-mail: faiyaz@wildmail.com