The Asiatic lion news archive - 2005

Stories relating to the Asiatic lion and updates on the captive breeding programme from 2005.

DATELINE: October 1, 2005
Too many enemies for Gir lions
HIMANSHU KAUSHIK

AHMEDABAD: A river ran through the sanctuary once. Now there is a railway line and a road. Hemmed in by the throbbing onward rush of civilisation, lions in Gir are retreating, dying and getting killed. From king of the jungle, the lion is now a slave of circumstances.

The last census, conducted in June this year, showed 359 Asiatic lions in the Gir sanctuary, a formerly pristine swathe of wilderness in Junagadh district and the only abode of Asiatic lions in the world. Since then, though, seven lions have perished. Two out of these were apparently poisoned by local villagers to "avenge" the killing of their livestock. Experts maintain that this may be the first instance of so many casualties in a span of two months.

Apart from poachers and villagers, the Gir, which was meant to be a "dry deciduous broad-leaved forest and savannah grassland," is itself turning hostile to the lion. While the forests around are rapidly depleting, pushing the animals out, trains have crushed 11 lions to death.

Meter-gauge trains running between Visavadar and Veraval pass through the jungle. And though the trains are slow, lions, which are lethargic beasts by nature, take time to move away. As for the road, truckers often take this short cut to Visavadar from Sasan, a route that passes through the forest. A vehicle takes at least 70 minutes to cross the jungle, during which it invariably lets out pollutants and violates the peace.

Forest officers admit that tractors, trucks and other vehicular traffic on the Visavadar-Sasan road that cuts through Gir, also distracts wildlife. To add to the dilemma of the lions, the sanctuary has some 55 Maldhari settlements which see the stately animals as a "threat"to their livestock.

This forest, also famous for the Kankai Mata temple, has pilgrims thronging throughout the year. This comes with its own hazards. Forest officials admit that the sanctuary was under constant threat from these pilgrims who make tea and cook food but sometimes forget to put out the fire.

"Gir is not a religious place meant for picnics. The government has to do something to check the number of trespassers,"said a troubled forest official. G A Patel, a member of National Wildlife Board of India, says: "It was because of our representations that the frequency of trains was reduced."It could have been worse then.

Officials attribute the frequent straying of lions from the protected area to the obvious 'conflict with humans'. This "conflict" often assumes barbaric proportions when farmers try to electrocute the beasts or poison them. They also dig wells camouflaging it with leaves, for the lions to fall in and die.

The latest threat has come from an unlikely enemy: intense monsoons in Gir. There is now an unrestrained growth of trees which has transformed the cluster from a savannah grassland to a thick forest, forcing the cats to look out for grasslands.

Patel said this, too, is a danger. Lack of sunlight in the forest has caused it to be humid, leading the animals to contract pneumonia and other infections.

Source: Times of India.