The lions in Gir

Dan

Dan

Well-Known Member
I saw a very interesting tv documentary the other day about the last remaining Asiatic lions in the wild. Apparently, or at least according to the last census (made in 2005), the lion population in Gir now consists of about 360 individuals.

According to the documentary this is the maximum that Gir can support and there are cases of lions leaving the national park in search of new territorities - thus putting them in danger, of course.

The documentary also claimed that a question has been raised about the possibility of moving a part af the Gir population to some other part of India - in order to secure the species in case an epidemy of for instance rabies or other disease should break out in Gir.

Anybody who knows something about this? Are there any concrete plans?
 
I believe the lack of suitable land to transfer lions too is the main stumbling block at this moment in time.
 
The concrete plans I know about, is the project to move lions from Gir to into Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS) in Madhya Pradesh. This is supposed to be a suitable environment for the lions. I don't know the present status of this project, but it seems like the state goverment of Gujarat (where Gir Forest is situated) has been reluctant to the translocation so far.
Try those links:
Asiatic Lion Information Centre - The Kuno Project (and other sub-pages)
Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
I saw another doco that breifly mentioned asian lions. They interviewed a park manager a he said that not too much we can do but protect the species and hopefully let them climb back up in numbers...

But that is only one person opinion. though a resourceful one...
 
one of the zookeepers in my zoo visited the Gir forest to see the lions and she told me that they told her there that they are going to move some of the lions to another place beacuse of the reasons you already mentioned.....
 
drzoomi said:
one of the zookeepers in my zoo visited the Gir forest to see the lions and she told me that they told her there that they are going to move some of the lions to another place beacuse of the reasons you already mentioned.....
Click to expand...

It is relatively old news ... reason why I continue critisicing Indian wildlife management authorities and their federalist system. The Kuno Project has been promoted for years. The Gir lion population has been veering on the over capacity for years. The federal government of Gujrat has been reluctant to do anything for years and has been politically posturing itself on being the sole state with Asian lions to the full detriment of the survival of the species. It is that bad since the Gujrat state and wildlife authorities have even failed to stop the continued poaching, poisoning, electrocution and falling into cattle wells of surplus lions. The real truth is that the lion population has been more or less stable for years and if no new sites are actively looked for to translocate some of the surplus lions the surplus will continue dying on the periphery of the present sanctuary or those substandard sanctuary areas the Gujrat government seems wont on bestowing on emigrating lions. There is a good Indian wildlife conservation site documenting all this. It is a complete scandal!

Anyhow, if we do not continue putting pressure on the ineffectual Gujrat government, it will never release any Asian lions to other Indian states where the species formerly occurred. That is a total disgrace and it is down to the egos of some hotshot Gujrati politicians. The Kuno project - which has completely restocked the wildlife herbivore population in Madhya Pradesh state - has now chosen to translocate some captive-bred lions from Delhi-Hyderabad and a third Indian zoo. The offspring of these lions will be releasees.

A last note: some 2-5 surplus wildcaught Asian lions end up in Sakkarbaug Zoo almost every year. The EEP is crying out for new founders and the Sakkarbaug Zoo has about 15+ wild caught and non-breeding individuals to choose from. Another indication how the federal government of Gujrat is failing once again for purely personal agendas and political posturing. These people just do not care for what is in the best interest of Asian lion protection.

I rest my case ... from Phil.... :mad::eek::cool:
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
The Gir lion population has been veering on the over capacity for years. The federal government of Gujrat has been reluctant to do anything for years It is a complete scandal!


A last note: some 2-5 surplus wildcaught Asian lions end up in Sakkarbaug Zoo almost every year. The EEP is crying out for new founders and the Sakkarbaug Zoo has about 15+ wild caught and non-breeding individuals to choose from.
Click to expand...

I visited the Gir Forest many years ago. The situation of overpopulation, lack of translocations etc has basically remained the same ever since. There was one small translocation made a long time ago but it eventually failed. Now there are surplus lions in Sakkarbaug Zoo too (I wonder what conditions are like there?) but it seems nothing is to be done with them either except perhaps eventually the export of a couple more pairs to Europe?

It is a terrible state of affairs really. :mad:
 
Lions in Gir are long past carrying capacity and now lions try to live in small forests among the farmland. The danger for both lions and people is obvious.

The main problem is that local government of Gujarat doesn't want to export lions. If I understand, the problem is that they understand 'Gujarat treasure' so that you don't part with it... If I understand, there is also lively dislike between different regions of India.

Maybe some campaign that Gujarat will spread its fame far and wide by exporting lions would help...
 
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