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:24June, 2006
Are lions Gujarati?

Proloy Bagchi

Fobbing off the National Wildlife Board, the Gujarati wildlife experts succeeded in getting a decision on the decade-old proposal to relocate a few pairs of lions from Gir to Kuno-Palpur Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh (MP) postponed.

Gujarat has been resisting the shifting of lions on grounds quite bizarre. Describing them once as "Gujarat's pride" - as if they were not so for the rest of the country - the State experts have now put forth the curious ground of the unsuitability of Kuno-Palpur as it also hosts tigers. Suffering from convenient amnesia, they forget that the habitat of lions once extended practically to the entire country, where they co-existed with tigers. Oblivious of the vulnerability of the last of the Asiatic lions to diseases and natural calamities if kept in a single sanctuary, they are now questioning the wisdom of the decision taken more than a decade back.

Evidently, what is gradually emerging in Gujarat is a new hard-nosed provincialism that is given expression to aggressively. It is not the wildlife experts alone; even villagers residing in Gir forest were heard on television forcefully expressing their resolve to resist with all their might the proposed shifting of lions from their midst, displaying an unfortunate lack of concern for the threatened beasts. If the lions were to fall victim of an epidemic and become extinct, they seemingly couldn't care less and, perhaps, would cherish the fact that the lions remained "Gujarati" till the very end.

The once liberal and progressive community is showing signs of chauvinism, self-centredness and intolerance. So, if Narmada Bachao Andolan is perceived as working against its interests, it is meted out a harsh treatment. If Aamir Khan pleads for according priority to rehabilitation of the Narmada "oustees", he too is viewed as an adversary deserving punishment. Whether "oustees" in MP live or die is apparently of no consequence to them.

The adverse publicity Gujarat has received in recent times has, perhaps, dissolved much of the differences and cemented the community together, making it a little too assertive. While pride in one's province is unexceptionable, fanatical provincialism verging on a rabid sub-nationalism is not. The sooner this is curbed, the better it will be for the Union and its other constituents.