Asiatic Lion - Data, Pictures & Videos

[Sanju]

Lion at last get its share

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 It was in 1972 that lions were dethroned as the national animal by Royal Bengal Tiger. Now 48 years later, the Union government has once again given the national importance to lion and declared Project Lion.
While addressing the nation from the Red Fort on the Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the Union government would lay emphasis on the conservation of lion through Project Lion.

This is for the first time that the Union government has announced that it will take up Project Lion for the conservation of Asiatic Lions found in Saurashtra region of Gujarat.

Prime Minister in his address said that the country had successfully implemented Project Tiger and Project Elephant. The project will focus on creating health infrastructure which is suitable for the lion, the PM said.
The lions in Gujarat are found in an area of about 30,000sq km.

Quote:A senior officer from from the Union ministry of forest and environment and climate change said that the project was expected as the Centre, after the CDV outbreak, had announced a Rs 98-crore Project Lion for creating hospital and disease surveillance. The officer said that the project would help the state to improve the habitat, engage modern technologies in lion management and surveillance and even rope in national institutes like Indian Veterinary Research Institute and National Institute for Virology for disease monitoring.

The project will also address human-wildlife conflict and will be a comprehensive project involving local communities living in the vicinity of lion landscape, said a senior state forest officer. The officer said that the implementation of the project would mean more funds for the conservation of lions and for disease surveillance.

At present the Asiatic lions get funds based on the project under various schemes. But Project Lion would mean a proper allocation of funds on the lines of Project Tiger.

Moreover, Asiatic Lions, which are monitored only by the Gujarat Forest department, will have a body which will be taking decision for the conservation. Also the CCTV trap methods used for tiger surveillance and monitoring will also be implemented for the Asiatic Lions in the Saurashtra region. The officer said that even the Union forest ministry team, which had recently visited Gujarat forest after the death of lions in Dhari and nearby areas, had also advocated the need for Project Lion on the lines of Project Tiger.

The officer said that even during the webinar on Project Lion, the Union ministry of forest and environment had asked Gujarat to rope in Indian Veterinary Research Institute and National Institute of Virology for disease surveillance.

Gujarat may no longer have monopoly for lion sightings:The senior officials from the forest department in Gujarat are worried that with the implementation of Project Lion, the centre government can easily order the translocation of lions to Kuno Palpur, the issue which has been pending since April 2013.

2017 committee recommended: In 2017, the 31-member Parliamentary committee visited Gir forest on January 17, 2017 and in its report stated that the central government must take up the conservation of endangered Asiatic lions on the lines of Project Tiger. 

The Parliamentary committee was headed by Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury, who had strongly pitched for a ‘statutory support’ to strengthen lion conservation efforts.

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