Asiatic Lion Information Centre

The Asiatic lion news archive - 2007

Stories relating to the Asiatic lion and updates on the captive breeding programme from 2007.

DATELINE: April 9, 2007
Now showing, night safari just for you

Darkness has descended on Gir. A pride of lions walks up to a watering hole. While others watch, the male springs to its feet and attacks a buffalo. The rest of the group then feast their eyes on the catch. This is no fantasy.

This 'night safari' could be for your eyes only, right in the heart of Gir sanctuary. The cost — anywhere between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 a night for a group packed in two or three vehicles.

How to get there: Get the right contacts among the local populace who would arrange the private show. Conservationists may fume at this, but those staying in and around Gir seem to be doing a much better job hardselling the rare Asiatic lions than the mandarins in Gandhinagar.

These Gir locals have created an alternative tourist circuit for people clamouring for a dekko at the lions in the wild.

Sources say locals like Duru Baloch — detained under suspicion of being a part of the lion poaching racket — were pioneers of this parallel tourist circuit.

Buffaloes and sheep are used as baits to lure the lions closer to where the tourists are stationed. Ask villagers in Babariya, Zakhia, Jambur, Bhaka and Dhoradi on the outskirts of the sanctuary and they will tell you how the night safaris have continued for years now.

While it is the domestic tourists, mainly from Mumbai, that throng to such shows, foreign tourists also join in the thrill. The fact that the sanctuary is open from all sides, only makes it easier for the organisers of illegal night safaris to thrive.