Are India’s Lions Safe? 13 Caged in Gir, 40% Live Outside Forests

In the conversation on lion attacks, why do we never discuss human encroachment?

An Asiatic lion rests in Gir forest. (Photo: Reuters)

Gir officials in the Gujarat Forest Department caged 13 Asiatic lions on Sunday following three recent attacks on humans.

According to officials, the step was taken to prevent the possibility of further attacks, as well as to ascertain if the lions had eaten the humans, through a scat (excreta) analysis report.

A Spate of Attacks

• On Friday, a 21-year-old was allegedly attacked by a lion when he and his father were sleeping in the fields in Ambardi village. The owner of the farm found the half-eaten body of the boy some 500 metres away.
  
  
• On 10 April, a lioness attacked and killed a 50-year-old in Bharad village.
  
  
• Before that, a 60-year-old was mauled to death in March in a similar attack in Ambardi.
  

These incidents prompted former minister and BJP leader Dileep Sanghani to write to the state’s forest minister and demand that the state government provide arms to farmers residing near the Gir sanctuary and allow them to kill lions in self defence.

Gir officials in the Gujarat Forest Department caged 13 Asiatic lions on Sunday. (Photo: iStockphoto)

Are Lions in Danger?

While the focus is firmly on the narrative around these attacks, the issue of human encroachment is equally, if not more, important.

According to the 2015 census, Gir sanctuary is home to 523 Asiatic lions. However, the sanctuary has seen the death of over 250 lions in the past five years.

In 2000, The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) had added the Asiatic Lion to the list of critically endangered species.

Activists and experts have often highlighted risks to the lion population. In an interview with BBC, environmentalist Takhubhai Sansur says that lions are often run over by speeding trucks and trains.

Lion numbers have increased, but the challenge is their safety. About 40 percent of the total lion population now lives outside the forest area. Open wells and live wires on farms, poachers and passing trains and trucks have turned this region into a death field for the Asiatic Lion.

Environmentalist Takhubhai Sansur to BBC

A Balanced Talk

Illegal mining and drying rivers are the primary reasons that lions are migrating away from the forest areas, says wildlife activist Bhikhabhai Jethava in the BBC report.

An official in the Gir sanctuary also mentioned that train-speeds in areas dominated by the lions need to be regulated by the railways to avoid running them over.

Lions are creating alternative habitats as their ‘natural’ habitats are no longer a safe abode. And while concerns over the increasing man-animal conflict is legitimate, there is also a dire need to bring into public discourse, the issue of poaching and encroachment.

(With agency inputs)