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The Asiatic lion news archive - 2007
DATELINE: April 8, 2007
Modi announces `Project Lion' at Gir sanctuary
Jolted by the recent incidents of poaching in the Gir sanctuary, the only abode of the Asiatic lions, the Gujarat Government on Saturday announced "Project Lion" for the protection and preservation of the big cats. It also claimed to have unravelled the poaching racket detaining 35 people for questioning.
Announcing the project, Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who visited Sasan, the administrative headquarters of the Gir sanctuary, on Friday night, said the State Government would earmark Rs. 40 crore for the long-term preservation and protection of the lions.
It would appoint immediately at least 300 more "vanmitras," (friends of forests), the nomenclature he coined for the beat guards, to keep constant vigil.
He urged the Centre to sanction funds for the protection of the endangered species in Gir on the lines of the "Project Tiger."
Besides the formation of a special "wild life crime cell" in the State CID and forest departments for dealing with the threats to wild animals and poaching, Mr. Modi said a monthly-monitoring committee under the Inspector General of Police, Junagadh Range, would be formed. It would have officials from the neighbouring Bhavnagar and Amreli districts, where the lions were commonly found even outside the boundaries of the Gir sanctuary.
The committee would regularly monitor the security measures in the lion sanctuary. It would be made compulsory for a senior police officer, possibly of the rank of IGP, to pay a visit to the sanctuary every week for an on-the-spot study of the situation.
Mr. Modi said the check-posts and all the entry and exit points to the sanctuary would be tightened. Additional manpower would be deployed and closed circuit television sets installed to keep a tab on every individual and vehicle. The help of modern technologies like Global Positioning System would be taken to monitor the position of the beat guards and check any suspicious movement of men and vehicles in the sanctuary area.
An autonomous body, "Gujarat State Lion Conservation Society," would be formed to implement the project and also help draw up plans for long-term protection of lions and the sanctuary through people's participation.
Mr. Modi said the Government would also consider formation of special fast track courts to try the criminal cases involving poachers.
The State CID (Crime) police, investigating the lion poaching incidents, had picked up 35 people, including about a dozen women, from Una, a small town on the periphery of the Gir forests, in Junagadh district.
The police also claimed to have found some lion claws and at least five lion traps in their possession.
The arrested were presented before Mr. Modi when he visited the sanctuary.
The police, however, were on the look-out for at least five more people, considered to be the main group behind the poaching, and who had managed to escape from Una minutes before the police raided the town.
At least six lions were killed by the alleged poachers in the last one month and their claws, bones and skins removed in two incidents on March 3 and March 30. Both incidents took place in the Babariya range.
Police sources said the arrests in Una were made on the basis of "facts" revealed by one of the arrested beat guards, Noor Mohammad Baloach, during his lie detector test at the Forensic Science Laboratory in Gandhinagar.
Source: The Hindu
http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/08/stories/2007040805451000.htm
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