Asiatic Lion - Data, Pictures & Videos

[Rishi]

Quick, decisive & commendable move by Gujarat governance.

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In Gujarat govt’s blueprint for saving lions: new laws, hiring informers, increased safaris.

Teasing, harassing or illegally attracting a lion’s attention in Greater Gir can now attract punishment on the lines of poaching.

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The Gujarat government on Tuesday declared that anybody harassing the Asiatic lions by organizing illegal lion shows, chasing lions on vehicles and making illegal video clips of the Big Cats will now attract serious penal action under section 9 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
Said acts would now tantamount to hunting & perpetrators would be imprisoned for up to seven years.

The state forest minister Ganpat Vasava told, “We have asked the forest officials to invoke hunting charges under section 9 of the act as any illegal activity such as holding illegal lion shows, harassing lions in speeding vehicles and even making clips of the Big Cats on mobile phones falls in the ambit of hunting." Vasava added, “Hunting as per the act does not only mean the killing of lions but also applies to harassing of the schedule I animal that, directly or indirectly, can eventually lead to it's harm."

In the last two years, at least 38 cases of illegal activities, like conducting lion shows by baiting and harassing the felines by chasing them by vehicles in and around the Gir wildlife sanctuary have come to light & series of videos had gone viral. The government has decided to employ police department like “informers” to curb such incidents.

Vasava said that the Forest Department, in collaboration with the Tourism Department, has also decided to increase the number of lion safaris in the protected areas for tourists. “People tend to see lions through illegal activities like lion shows when they cannot see them in (legal) safaris. So, we have decided to increase the number of such safari permits from 750 to 1,110 in a week,” he said.
For that, the Forest Minister also announced to develop a new tourism zone at Chikhalkuba village of Amreli district in order “to decrease the load of tourists on Sasan Tourism Zone”. “The lion safaris will start in the sanctuary area of Girnar mountain. Simultaneously, new safari routes will be added to Sasan zone,” he added.

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Gujarat government led by Vijay Rupani held a review meeting on the issue. The meeting concentrated on chalking out a strategy to decrease human intervention in jungles and also to form a plan for the conservation of Asiatic lions.
The meeting was held on Tuesday, Vasava declared 13-point conservation plan to put a stop on the man-animal conflict in Asiatic lion habitat. The population of these lions is 650 as per census 2017, spread over 22,000 sq.km across 1500 villages.

The government has also announced to form a single authority to manage the whole lionscape  which is currently managed by 4 seperate forest circles.
apart from the Gir Sanctuary, lions have settled or mobility in revenue areas and small forest areas. And therefore, a new division will be set up in Amreli under the control of Chief Conservator of Forest (Junagadh Wildlife Circle), covering nine talukas of Amreli and Bhavnagar districts.

The government is also set to declare an area of 109 square kilometre from Amreli and Bhavnagar districts as Conservation Reserve, under the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, that have been witnessing movement of lions outside the sanctuary area.
(Underthe Act, four kinds of protective areas can be notified in India — sanctuary, national park, conservation and community reserve.)

The government’s decisions follow recent High Court’s order, which directed it to file a fresh affidavit, giving details of the specific steps taken in the last couple of years to stop death of lions in and around the Gir forest caused by open wells, electrocution, vehicular traffic among others.

Also, the state government is keen on moving lions to newer sanctuaries within the state. Dushyant Vasavda, Chief Conservator of Forests, said:
We are considering the translocation of lions but within the state. We have already identified new alternative sanctuaries; one in Porbandar called the Barda Sanctuary and one near Rajkot named Rampura Sanctuary. As of now, we are building a prey base for lions in these sanctuaries. Once we have enough game to go around for the lions, the wild cats will be moved out. Reply