Asiatic Lion Information Centre

The Asiatic lion news archive - 2006

Stories relating to the Asiatic lion and updates on the captive breeding programme from 2006.

DATELINE: March 13, 2006
Lions are no longer king of the jungle in Gir

Rajesh Sinha

NEW DELHI: Lion deaths far outnumber tiger deaths in the country, according to the information with Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. From last year till end of February this year, 32 lions and 20 tigers were reported to have died.

Despite the increase in lion population from 327 to 359, as per the five-yearly census held last year, the lion is under threat. The Asiatic Lion is confined in India to the Gir sanctuary spread over 1,882-square kilometre area in the coastal district of Junagarh in Gujarat. However, conditions for survival are not exactly perfect in the sanctuary.

Five state highways and a railroad pass through the forest, which also draws 2.5 lakh tourists every year. While the forests are rapidly depleting, pushing the animals out. Trains crushed 11 lions to death.

There are three big temples in the forest, which has 23 shrines tucked away amid the trees, drawing more tourists than the wildlife safaris. There is widespread limestone mining in villages just outside the sanctuary. There is a cement factory 15 km away from the protected area. This destroys the natural habitat and drains forest resources, including water, so precious during the dry months. Water holes within the sanctuary are drying up, pushing lions out in search of both water and prey.

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. Dead animals have often been found to be missing claws, and animal activists say this point to the involvement of poachers.

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.

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.