Gujarat’s Gir national park is the only abode of the Asiatic lion in the world. A disease outbreak or natural disaster could have a grave impact on the population. Now the government has plans to find suitable sites within the state for the big cats. But is that enough?
The Royal Bengal Tiger is thriving in India. Not the same can be said about the other big cat – the Asiatic Lion.
Asiatic lions are found in only one place in the world – Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary in Gujarat and its surrounding areas. The reserve is the only natural habitat for the royal beasts.
Hunting and encroachment saw their numbers drop to a mere 20 in 1913. But conservation efforts by the Indian government turned things around for the country. According to the 2020 census, the lion population there had registered an increase of 25 per cent in the last five years and now stood at 674.
Yet there are reasons to worry. The majestic species is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as it is still vulnerable to many threats. It does not help that the lions are all restricted to one reserve in Gujarat’s Gir.
Why are the lions in danger?
An outbreak of contagious disease or natural disaster could have a grave impact on the cats, all concentrated in one area. There has been a scare or two in the past.
In September 2018, 24 lions died in a matter of weeks in Gir. The canine distemper virus (CDV) – a highly infectious disease – was detected among dozens of the royal beasts and killed at least 11 of them.
Thirty-six lions were kept under observation out of which 21 tested positive for CDV. Seven were discovered to have had a protozoan infection, transmitted by ticks, according to a report in The Economic Times.
The lions had to be isolated to prevent the infections from spreading. “We picked all the lions from the area and isolated them,” Dushyant Vasavada, the park’s chief conservator of forests, told AFP at the time.
Special vaccines were imported and each animal was given three shots followed by a booster dose.
The canine distemper virus is not something to be taken lightly. A 1993 outbreak in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park killed a third of its 3,000 lions.
The 2018 outbreak then was a grim reminder that despite the growing numbers their safety cannot be taken for granted. Lions have low genetic diversity because of their small population size, which makes them more vulnerable to epidemics.
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A significant number of the lions — nearly one-fourth — live outside the core habitat, increasing the risk to them from infrastructure projects, human-wildlife conflict and other external factors. The Gujarat government said that around 184 lions had died during 2016 and 2017, of which 32 died due to unnatural causes, including poaching.
There is also the threat of natural calamity. The 2015 floods in Saurashtra submerged hundreds of villages and parts of the sanctuary, killing eight lions.
Is the habitat enough for all lions?
No, far from it. The number of lions is growing but their natural habitat is also shrinking, which is a cause of concern. Gir has become overcrowded which is leading to infighting and forcing the territorial animals to look for new territory.
More than 100 lions can now be found in the coastal areas of Gujarat.
The Gir forest had around 400 lions in 2020, according to a state forest department estimate. The rest of Gujarat has around 275 lions, of which 104 have spread themselves across 300 kilometres of the state’s coastline, reports BBC.
“Normally, it is difficult for lions to adapt to a coastal habitat, but they have no option because of the scarcity of land,” Dr Nishith Dhariya, a wildlife scholar, told BBC.
According to forest officials, territorial wars have made lions leave Gir. They follow the Heran river, which passes through the forest and make their way to the coastline.
The forest department is doing all it can to protect the king of the jungle. They have planted deciduous gum Arabic trees in the coastal areas, providing them with a habitat similar to Gir, according to the report.
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What more can be done for the Asiatic lion?
Authorities and conservationists have proposed that a new home be found for these glorious beasts in other parts of Gujarat and some of India’s other states.
After the 2018 scare, wildlife biologist Ravi Chellam said that the outbreak underscored the need to move a few prides to other sites nearby. “Translocation is a risk mitigation strategy akin to us getting health or life insurance,” he told AFP. “If something happens to the to the population in Gir, there is always going to be an additional free-ranging population of wild lions available.”
The lions are all concentrated in one area, which remains a concern. Wildlife activists have been demanding that some lions be relocated for years now. Image courtesy: Gir National Park
Wildlife activists have been demanding that some of the lions be moved to the Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. The plan for translocation dates back to 1993 and 1994. However, little is done about it.
In April 2013, the Supreme Court ordered Gujarat to give lions to Madhya Pradesh within the next six months to save them from possible extinction in case of any catastrophe like an epidemic, a large forest fire and also to increase the genetic pool.
Gujarat filed a review petition, followed by a curative petition, which was dismissed in October 2013 and August 2014, respectively. Then, the state government insisted on completing over 30 studies before translocating lions, reports The Indian Express.
Why are the lions still in Gujarat?
The government has other plans to save the lion.
The Lion Project launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15 August 2020 zeroed in on seven sites in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan for relocation. By 2021, Gujarat prepared a fresh plan to move the animals to the state’s Badra Wildlife Sanctuary and other areas. This does not include relocation to other states.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Lion Project in 2020 as part of the government’s effort to conserve the endangered species. Image courtesy: Gujarat tourism
On Monday, the Centre while responding to a question in Lok Sabha spoke about elaborate plans to find suitable habitats for lions in Gujarat. It did not answer the question of moving lions to Kuno Palpur. “A committee was constituted by the ministry of environment, forest, and climate change with a view to assess the suitability of habitat for lions in potential sites in Gujarat,” Union environment minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey said.
According to a report in The Indian Express, on World Lion Day, on 10 August, an announcement is expected that Project Lion will focus on “assisted natural dispersal across Saurashtra” — and potentially to Rajasthan by the time India celebrates 100 years of Independence in 2047.
One can only hope that it can help save the Asiatic lion.With inputs from agencies
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