Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project

[Brehm]

@sanjay and @Pckts, yeah I know about Modi and the stubborness of Gujarat's Govt., this seems to be like an unmovable rock, wich blocks any ambitions in finding a second home for indian lions. It could last till the first fatal encounter's between human's and frequently man eating lion's, i guess. In that case, they strongly MUST find a second home for them somewhere else. Even if Sariska is naturally a tiger habitat, tiger's were whiped out there and the following relocation progress don't seems to be really successfull. I can understand the point of view of tiger reserve's being (originally) home to tigers, but there are far more things than "will of nature" to evaluate decisions and idea's. Avoiding unnecessary man - animal conflicts is one of them. The effectivness in case of protection and saving a species from extinction are also very important. If it's not guaranteed in one place, it's time to try new ways. I mean, what sounds better:

- 2 tiger reserves with one of them having a stable tiger population and god protection and the other with just a few tigers left and mediocre protection - in the best case

or

- 1 tiger reserve with a bigger focus on protection and enlarging the territory by adding a second place as potential corridor to expand
and
- In the same progress, the other former reserve as new home for lion's, with all the support and energy a new project needs


Nature did make tiger's occupy Kuno, so this place belongs to them imo. BUT, the asiatic lion has also the right to expand and survive, Kuno isn't the best option anymore, due to the tiger's and the natural corridor to Ranthambore. Of course, not every tiger reserve with low numbers of tigers should be analyzed as potential new home for lion's, due to the habitat type (for example, Dampha and Namdapha in the indian far east). Tiger protection should have still the same value as lion protection.

@brotherbear, there is actually one wild encounter documented in the Landshut newspaper, but this is more of an exaggerated story, in the original version even more than in the translation.

@Pantherinae, i agree with almost everything what you've described, except the part with the generalisation of lion's adapting open savannah type habitats. At species level it's true, no doubt. But in case of Gir lions, it's different. They live in dry forests combined with open fields, during and after monsoon, this place turn's pretty green. Because of that, i believe Gir lions could adapt to many places in northern - northwest india. The difficulty is, to find a place where tigers are absent. 

Good news, though: Asiatic lions number increased of 27% up to 523 indivduals! http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2...ion-rising
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