Oh, I agree with you 100%. I think it's incredibly toxic and detrimental to everyone - the lions of Gir themselves, the ecosystem which is dealing with a lion surplus, the cattle herders outside the park who are facing livestock predation, and of course the species and world as a whole.
But the economic argument still stands. I'm not saying that I agree with it (I absolutely don't), I'm just saying this influences the thinking of policy-makers in Gujarat. It doesn't matter how many folks abroad have heard of the Gir lions; they're not interested in foreign tourists. It's 100% about the domestic Indian market. We're a huge country of 1.3 billion people, so even though most of the population is too poor to go on safari, even the 1% in India is 10 million people. Most of our wildlife tourism industry (tigers, rhinos, lions, you name it) is driven by DOMESTIC demand, and a glance at either the entry statistics or anecdotal eyewitness accounts from the parks will confirm that. International tourists will always prefer Africa for a lion safari, but Indians from all states and regions of India travel to Gujarat to see the only wild ones in our country.
Check out this graph of domestic vs. foreign tourists to Gir:
https://forests.gujarat.gov.in/gir-nat-park.htm. Almost 400,000 Indian tourists in 2011-2012. In 2016, over 150,000 had visited within the first six months; in 2018, there were 75,000 in ONE WEEK on Diwali holidays (our equivalent of Thanksgiving break in the US).
Gujarat recognizes this - the lions are all over their tourism promotional materials. I had to travel to Ahmedabad (the capital of Gujarat) recently, and the airport has a huge, life-size model of a forest in Gir with lion statues. And I am sure that the economic calculation factors into their apparently just jingoistic reluctance to part with wild lions. Consider also the fact that Madhya Pradesh - the state that is poised to receive the lions and build the second wild population - currently has the "lion's share" of wildlife tourism revenue and potential, as it has 5-7 of the best tiger reserves in the country. Gujarat fears that lions on the existing "tiger circuit" will grow to eclipse theirs as a tourist trap, even though it's unlikely that the new park will have lion populations that are nearly as successful and visible as Gir's.
Again, I'm 100% in agreement with you, as my earlier posts here also indicate. I wish they would relocate the lions and use the new tourism revenue to protect India's fragile and neglected scrub and grassland ecosystems (with their striped hyenas, sloth bears, great Indian bustards, various critically endangered vultures, etc.) under the flagship banner of Lion Conservation. I also wish that Gujarat would divert their attention towards developing some of the other potential wildlife tourism attractions - for example, Velavadar in Gujarat has the world's largest herds of blackbuck, very visible wolves and striped hyenas, and one of the largest harrier roosts. Rann of Kutch has onagers and flamingoes. Gir will continue to be the best bet for lions, and there are several strong locations for leopard tourism as is now booming in the neighboring state of Rajasthan.
But I'm just saying - there is an economic layer to the toxicity as well. And I don't think Gujarat currently considers the international back-patting/appreciation/support for making the right move scientifically as better than the local revenue generated by their monopolization of lions. If we want their minds to change, we have to influence that calculus.
