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Asiatic Lion - Data, Pictures & Videos
Asiatic Lion - Data, Pictures & Videos
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Asiatic Lion - Data, Pictures & Videos
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Kuno, India’s second home for the Asiatic lion, is ready
by Anup Dutta on 26 November 2019
“Still waiting for new beginning”. The words in bold, white, are painted alongside a mural of a lion and lioness, on a sign near the forest guest house in Palpur village inside the Kuno Palpur wildlife sanctuary in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The guest house overlooks Kuno river and offers a clear glimpse into the heart of the forest and the wildlife of the sanctuary. The sun shines bright on the landscape, welcoming a new day and perhaps the start of a new chapter for the sanctuary. After more than two decades of roadblocks, the Kuno Palpur wildlife sanctuary is ready as the new home for Asiatic lions, starting with those that are to be relocated from Gujarat’s Gir sanctuary, currently the only home of the Asiatic lions in India. In a recent visit over two days, Mongabay-India witnessed the revamped sanctuary. The areas of grassland habitat are ready to provide food for the animals that lions prey upon like nilgai (blue bull), chital (spotted deer), sambhar, chinkara. “The grass on the sites of the 24 villages that existed here and have already been relocated outside, as a part of the lion reintroduction program, have grown. There is no sign of human habitat. The villages have been developed into large grasslands, making the sanctuary almost free from human habitation for the free and flexible movements of lions,” Vijendra Shrivastav, sub-divisional officer, Kuno Palpur (West) Wildlife Sanctuary told Mongabay-India as he spoke about the preparations of the sanctuary to receive lions from Gir wildlife sanctuary in Gujarat. “We are asking just for two pride of lions that typically includes a male, three to five females and their young cubs. On successful relocation, the family of lions will access the unused habitats and will also increase the seasonal mast availability for wildlife in the sanctuary and diversity.”  *This image is copyright of its original author Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno Palpur Wildlife sanctuary is all set to be the new home for relocated Asiatic lions from Gir in Gujarat. Photo by Anup Dutta.
It has been 29 years since Kuno Palpur was identified as the site for the relocation of Asiatic lions, from their last habitat in Gujarat, to protect them from extinction. Currently, there are 523 (as per the last census carried out in 2015) lions in Gir and this relocation project was supposed to have been completed by 2020. The “Action plan for the reintroduction of the Asiatic lions (Panthera leo persica) in Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary – Draft 2016” prepared by the expert committee for translocations of lions from Gir to Kuno Sanctuary observed that the “last free-ranging population of approximately 523 Asiatic lions Panthera leo persica are found in the 22,000 square kilometre of the Gir landscape in Gujarat, western India. Carnivore populations restricted to single sites face a variety of extinction threats from genetic and stochastic environmental factors.” The draft is now under implementation. Catastrophes such as an epidemic, an unexpected decline in prey, natural calamities or retaliatory killings could result in the extinction of the lion population when they are restricted to single populations, the action plan adds. Reintroduction of Asiatic lions to an alternative site to ensure their long-term viability has become a major conservation agenda since the late-1950s. Failure of the first attempt of the Asiatic lion reintroduction in India (Chandraprabha Wildlife Sanctuary of Uttar Pradesh) in the 1960s has been ascribed to the lack of an a priori scientific study on lion prey base, habitat requirements, local people’s attitude and a post-release monitoring program, notes the plan. In the early 1990s, after ecological assessment of some protected areas within the historical range of lions was undertaken, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) identified Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary (Kuno WLS) in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh as the most potential reintroduction site. Subsequently, between 1996 and 2001, 23 villages were resettled from inside the identified Kuno sanctuary by the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department (MPFD) and an area of about 1,280 square km was demarcated as Kuno wildlife division. A new home for the Asiatic lion is finally materialising Located in north Madhya Pradesh, Kuno was one of the hunting grounds of the royal families of the region and was notified as a sanctuary in 1981. “The sanctuary is classified under the semi-arid – Gujarat Rajputana biogeographic zone,” a senior forest officer of the Madhya Pradesh’s forest department said. According to Azad Singh Dabhas, a retired forest officer, “in the 1990s, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) took up the matter of finding an alternative home for the species and identified Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary as the most suitable site.” He explained that the idea was that in case of catastrophes such as an endemic, an unexpected decline in prey, natural calamities or retaliatory killings could result in the extinction of threatened species which are restricted to a single site – Gir National Park in Gujarat. Between 1996 and 2001 the Madhya Pradesh Government relocated 23 villages containing 1,547 families from Kuno Sanctuary in preparation for the new lion population. “Not a single incidence of poaching and human-animal conflict has been reported in the last three years,” said a senior official of the sanctuary. Though the sanctuary is inhabited by carnivores such as leopard, wolf, jackal, Indian fox and striped hyena, in the last over two decades, the population of chital, sambar, nilgai, chinkara, wild pig, chowsingha, and blackbuck are found in abundance.  *This image is copyright of its original author A view of the Kuno river flowing through Kuno Palpur Wildlife sanctuary. Photo by Anup Dutta
“One of the major challenges was of the sites of the relocated villages to develop them into grasslands. The sites of the relocated villages have developed into large grasslands, extending in size to as much as 1,500 ha in some cases,” said Shrivastav. According to Atul Chouhan, Kuno Sangharsh Samiti, “The state tourism department is successfully running a three-star hotel located on the Shivpuri Highway. A large number of visitors prefer to stay in the forest guest house, which is located inside the Kuno Reserve and is around 25 kilometres from the Tiktoli, the entry gate to the Kuno Reserve. Round the year more than 2,000 visitors come to Kuno Reserve. And the number of visitors to Kuno is rising up. If, lions are going to be introduced in Kuno Reserve the footfall is certainly going to rise.” The Samiti, now with about 2,000 members, was formed by like-minded people of Sheopur district in 2009-10 after the Gujarat government refused to share lions. The Samiti, along with the forest dwellers who were shifted from the sanctuary have held protests, submitted memorandums to the government alleging that they sacrificed their ancestral homes and land in a way to provide a safe place for the lions. They demanded that the government should respect their sacrifice and take constructive efforts to introduce lions in Kuno Palpur. Chouhan wants the government to involve youth of the villages in tourism activities by training them as field guides of the sanctuary. From the 24 villages, a total of 1,545 families were affected. The villagers were relocated to Karhal tehsil of Sheopur district. “We have left our ancestral homes, anticipating that we are doing it for a bigger cause by understanding the need of the government to provide a safe place for lions and conversation of our natural heritage. But, what we have received nothing in return. There are no signs of lions being introduced in the Kuno. The government has done injustice with us,” said Kapoor Singh Yadav, a resident of village Naya Paron situated on the Sheopur-Shivpuri State Highway. Yadav, along with his family members and 50 odd families of village Paron, which was situated inside the Kuno Palpur Sanctuary, shifted to the new location in 2004.  *This image is copyright of its original author Panoramic view of Kuno Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary. The current carrying capacity of the area is a maximum of 40 lions. Photo by Anup Dutta.
Gujarat’s reluctance to relocate the lions As per the action plan, the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) endorsed the lion reintroduction program in Kuno. However, the proposal met with resistance from the Gujarat Forest Department (GFD) which was reluctant to provide founder lions from Gir for reintroduction purposes. An affidavit was also filed before the Supreme Court of India objecting the lion reintroduction. Gujarat government has been refusing to give lions to Madhya Pradesh alleging that it would not be safe to shift the mighty beast to a state which has failed to protect its own tiger population. After legal tangles spanning for almost two decades, the apex court finally gave its verdict in April 2013 and explicitly directed the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India (GoI) to expedite the lion reintroduction in Kuno in compliance with the IUCN guidelines of carnivore reintroduction. Accordingly, the 2016 draft action plan was developed under the directives of the Additional Director General (Wildlife) to guide a successful lion reintroduction in Kuno. The plan, now under implementation, enlists various ecological, biological, management and social facets in accordance with the IUCN/SSC guidelines to develop a time-bound protocol essential for implementing the reintroduction program. Some management actions recommended in the action plan are concomitant and should continue for long-term, it notes.  *This image is copyright of its original author For now, Gir is the last refuge of the Asian lion population. A second home is essential to save the Asiatic lions. Photo by Kalyan Varma.
Gir in Gujarat is the last refuge of the Asian lion population. According to the 14th Lion Estimation Population Report, the lion population has increased by 27 percent from 411 in 2010 to 523 in 2015. The increase in lion numbers inside the protected area has been just six percent (as of 337 to 356), however, the rise outside has been higher 126 percent (from 74 to 167). A large number of lions wander outside the Gir National Park in the eco-sensitive zone of the Gir Protected Area. In 2018, when the deaths of 23 lions in Gir took place, the Gujarat government maintained it to be a one-off incident. The government allegedly refused to touch and go in deep to dig out the medical analytical cause behind the deaths. After the incident, the Gujarat government launched a Rs. 350 crore (Rs. 3.5 billion) lion conservation project. The project was reviewed by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in July 2019, when, during rains visuals of lion frisking in the urban areas of Gir Forest hit social media. The reintroduction plan The expert committee has suggested a four-phase plan for the reintroduction of lion in Kuno which involves organisational commitments, ecological monitoring and quantifying social carrying capacity of lion reintroduction, followed by capture, translocation and soft release of lions in Kuno, post-reintroduction monitoring & research, conflict mitigation, followed with an annual review of the project. The first three phases would be undertaken over a period of two years, after which, upto the next 20 years or so the plan highlights genetic management & supplementation, under which six lions (two males and four females) should be supplemented in the Kuno population from Gir until 16-20 years from the first reintroduction at an interval of 4 years. The report maintains, carnivore reintroduction is an appropriate conservation strategy to restore the integrity of ecosystems. However, many pitfalls exist that can result in the total or partial failure of a reintroduction program and can potentially waste valuable and limited resources. Lion population could reach a capacity of 80 individuals in 30 years According to Kuno divisional forest officer, current habitat management initiatives by Madhya Pradesh Forest Department (MPFD) inside Kuno WLS such as weed eradication, fire management, grassland management, waterhole management etc. would continue so as to enhance nutritional carrying capacity for wild ungulates, which would serve as a prey base for the lions Although the current carrying capacity of lions at Kuno WLS is a maximum of 40 lions, Population Habitat Viability Analysis (PHVA) models for Kuno lions show that the lion population will be viable for long- term only at a minimum figure of around 80 individuals. Expecting approximately a realised growth that has been observed for recovering tiger populations, along with supplementation every four years from Gir; the lion population in Kuno WLS should reach the current carrying capacity of 40 within 15 years. To reach the required self-sustaining population size of 80 lions, the time required would be close to 30 years. https://india.mongabay.com/2019/11/kuno-...Wt_REnB41I  (11-26-2019, 10:43 PM)Rage2277 Wrote: Kuno, India’s second home for the Asiatic lion, is ready Just as I was talking about the need for Gujarat to shift some of its surplus lions to Madhya Pradesh ...  (11-26-2019, 11:02 AM)BorneanTiger Wrote: On the flip side, I see that villagers over there have become afraid for themselves and their own lives, but as long as Gujarat opposes shifting any of its lions outside, such as to Madhya Pradesh (which was keen on taking them in), I don't see what can be done about it, unless maybe the lions reach the state capital, Ahmedabad, and cause panic there. Whether this concept of "surplus lion shifting" is that simple & will actually have any effect on Gujarat's lion population or not, has been discussed to death too many times before in several threads including this as well as other threads. Vis-a-vis CDV epidemic, exploding numbers, feasibility... everything! No point bringing that up again. There's some new updates, posted in Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project. Also, in 2020 census both the districts of Rajkot & Surendranagar would be covered. Atleast Gujarat's coexistence machinary is very robust. They have moved 5 dozen foresters in the area, more men than whole national parks in many places, shadowing the pride & holding awareness workshops. Didn't hear anything after that. But in these cases, no news is good news. 
Darshan Pithadia
Evening capture Gir forest The king  *This image is copyright of its original author
Restoring Saurashtra’s grasslands is key to Asiatic lions thriving their habitat
Just like with lion conservation, grassland maintenance can also be done with the participation of local communities. They can help in replanting grasslands and clearing any woodlots, if required. Part of the proceeds from wood clearing can be shared with the panchayats. Dheeraj Mittal | December 2, 2019  *This image is copyright of its original author Though lions are carnivores, there is an umbilical link between grass and the big cats. Grass is the starting point of most major food chains. Wild ungulates like spotted deer, blue bulls (nilgai), sambar, wild boars etc, which form the main prey-base of Asiatic lions, dependent on good grass. Their habitat comprises grasslands and open forest patches. The Saurashtra region is interspersed with 106 reserved vidis (grasslands) maintained by the forest department and 434 non-reserved vidis controlled by other agencies. They are spread over almost 2,000 sq.km, making up 20% of total grassland cover in Gujarat. Private vidis, gauchars (community grasing-lands controlled by village panchayats) and government wastelands supplement these vidis. Most of these vidis are part of the 25,000 sq.km Greater Gir landscape, the present abode of Asiatic lions. A good lion habitat must have a good prey-base. For a healthy prey-base, grasslands are the key. Lion conservation efforts are focused on habitat improvement and, by extension, on improvement of grasslands. Dispersal of lions from the core Gir forest was possible due to a matrix of grasslands and open patches in the Greater Gir area. It is imperative, therefore, to initiate landscape-level interventions to ensure that the lion population keeps thriving. Since these big cats coexist with local agro-pastoralists, minimising competition for natural resources between wildlife and local communities is crucial. Productive grasslands can help achieve this. They can make a very good habitat for lions while also meeting requirements of the locals. Lions have been dispersing out of the core Gir forest for the past 15 years. As of 2017, out of total 600+ Asiatic lions 167 were living outside protected forests, ie, 1/3rd of their population. The lions living outside protected forests have made these grasslands in revenue areas their home. Hence, these grasslands will be critical to lions’ further dispersal and sustaining their robust population growth seen over the past couple of decades. Over a period of time, however, these grasslands have degraded owing to invasion of woody & shrubby species and have turned into somewhat unproductive woodlots or scrublands. Hardly any grass grows in them now. Instead, growth of species like lantana, prosopis, van tulsi and cassia defines their vegetation. This vegetation is unpalatable for most wild ungulates or domestic animals. The progressive degradation of grasslands has exacerbated some of the present problems like shortage of fodder, lack of good grazing grounds for maldharis (a semi-nomadic pastoralist community), increase in crop depredation by wild herbivores etc. Eventually, it can prove detrimental to animal husbandry, which, after agriculture, is the other major occupation in Saurashtra. As grasslands on forest fringes become unsuitable for wildlife and local livestock, the fringe further shifts towards agricultural fields and human settlements. This, in turn, is aggravating human-wildlife conflict. In the long run, such a scenario may sour the unique sentiment and goodwill the local communities have for wildlife in general and lions in particular. This gradual, unattended shift has affected both ecology and economics of the region. Village panchayats are unable to maintain their gauchars for lack of resources. Nor do they consider managing their gauchars and wastelands a priority. The continued apathy is resulting in large-scale encroachment on such swathes and soil mining from such patches. There aren’t many management interventions by the forest department either in the non-reserved vidis. The net result is that the landscape is suffering the tragedy of commons and a vicious self-perpetuating circle of unproductiveness. For long-term ecological and economic security, all stakeholders need to make a collective effort. The forest and revenue departments and panchayats need to take up a joint mission to restore these grasslands. Good productive grasslands are extremely important for fodder security. For instance, the more than 1.6 crore kg of grass collected by the forest department from reserve vidis in 2018-19 will be available for distribution in the event of a drought. Grasslands are important for water security too as they serve as great watersheds. The conflict due to crop depredation and lions venturing into human habitations can also be mitigated if grasslands are maintained and managed properly. Wild herbivores naturally prefer open and productive patches and thereby keep carnivores interested in such areas. Grassland restoration will also help in the conservation of bustards, floricans, wolves, blackbucks and many other wild species that share a similar habitat.
Mayur H Variya
King for a reason! Great looking ambardi lion.  *This image is copyright of its original author
©Munir Jikani
 *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author ©???  *This image is copyright of its original author ©PinkeshTanna  *This image is copyright of its original author ©Jeet Trivedi  *This image is copyright of its original author
Devendra Singh Rathore
Devraj I think.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
Has numbers of lions crossed 1,000-mark in Gujarat?
Himanshu Kaushik | TOI | Dec 3, 2019  *This image is copyright of its original author AHMEDABAD: Even as Lion Census 2020 is just five months away, murmurs in the jungle suggest that the population of Asiatic lions may have crossed the 1,000 mark!Top officials in the state forest department concede, on the condition of anonymity, that lion numbers are believed to have at least doubled that of 523 lions, the population last counted in 2015. Next census is slated in May next year. “Lions numbers would easily be 1,100-1,200 in the state,” said a top forest official. Sources say that internal assessment of lions by the state forest department has been suggesting a robust lion population for quite some time now. This is reflected in the ever expanding footprint of the lions which now have official presence in at least seven districts — Junagadh, Gir Somnath, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Porbandar, Rajkot & recently, Surendranagar. Tracking royals: Atleast 450 lions got micro-chipped since 2010 Lending further credence to rising numbers of big cats is the revelation that number of lions with micro-chips embedded over past years is more than 450. These lions are in the age-group of 3-13 years. “Micro-chips are inserted in lions that have been caught at least once by forest officials and caged. These lions are mainly caught from revenue areas for having strayed into villages, falling in wells or even attacking villagers & moved to suitable forested areas where they can survive,” said a senior official. “As no duplication is possible in this advance identification process, lions being inserted with micro-chips itself is a major indicator of a solid population.” Experts say that there is a strong possibility that apart from these 450 odd lions, there should be over 20% or 150 lions in 3-13 years that were not caught. "Add this with 400-odd lions less than 3 years old and above 13 years, numbers cross 1,000,” explained a senior official. Wildlife expert AJT Jonsingh said that as he has not visited Gir for many years he cannot comment on the specific lion numbers. “I surely feel that if almost 500 lions were micro-chipped, then lion's numbers could be much higher than 600", said Jonsingh. Last year, CM vijay Rupani had stated that lion numbers have reached 600 in Gujarat due to conservation efforts. Another senior lion expert Dr. Jhala said that Gujarat government has always been loathe to admitting the real numbers of lions for fear of triggering public panic & increasing pressure from wildlife fraternity to translocate lions to MP. "It is time institutes like Wildlife Institute of India (WII) that has expertise in tiger census is roped in for lion census too with camera trap methods to count the exact lion population. This is crucial for better lion conservation and management plan," said the Jhala. Unlike tiger census however, where only grown animals above 20 months get counted due to 50-70% mortality rate in cubs, lion census of Gujarat includes all animals of any age in the final population figure. |
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