The Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project is an initiative of the
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n Government to provide safeguards to the
Asiatic lion
The Asiatic lion is a population of ''Panthera leo leo'' that today survives in the wild only in India. Since the turn of the 20th century, its range has been restricted to Gir National Park and the surrounding areas in the Indian state of Gujarat ...
(''
Panthera leo leo
''Panthera leo leo'' is a lion subspecies, which is present in West Africa, northern Central Africa and India. In West and Central Africa it is restricted to fragmented and isolated populations with a declining trajectory. It has been referred to ...
'') from
extinction
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
in the wild by means of reintroduction. The last wild population of the Asiatic lion is found in the
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
of
Gir Forest National Park
Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, also known as Sasan Gir, is a forest, national park, and wildlife sanctuary near Talala Gir in Gujarat, India. It is located north-east of Somnath, south-east of Junagadh and south-west of Amreli. ...
, in the state of
Gujarat
Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...
. The single population faces the threats of
epidemics
An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time.
Epidemics of infectious d ...
,
natural disasters
A natural disaster is "the negative impact following an actual occurrence of natural hazard in the event that it significantly harms a community". A natural disaster can cause loss of life or damage property, and typically leaves some econo ...
and other
anthropogenic factors. The project aims to establish a second independent population of
Asiatic lion
The Asiatic lion is a population of ''Panthera leo leo'' that today survives in the wild only in India. Since the turn of the 20th century, its range has been restricted to Gir National Park and the surrounding areas in the Indian state of Gujarat ...
s at the
Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary
Kuno National Park is national park and Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, India. It derives its name from Kuno River. It was established in 1981 as a wildlife sanctuary with an initial area of in the Sheopur and Morena districts. In 2018, ...
in the Indian state of
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...
.
However, the proposed translocation has been bitterly contested by the state government.
History
![Lion Reintron Sites in India](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Lion_Reintron_Sites_in_India.png)
The distribution of Asiatic lion, once found widely in West and South Asia, dwindled to a single population in the Gir Forest National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary in India.
The population at Gir declined to 18 animals in 1893 but increased due to protection and conservation efforts to 284 in 1994.
The Gir Wildlife Sanctuary is now highly overpopulated with lions, the 2015 census showed the strength to be 523 lions. There are numerous deaths in the population annually because of ever increasing competition between the human and animal overcrowding. Asiatic lion prides require large
territories
A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal.
In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or an ...
but there is limited space at Gir wildlife sanctuary, which is boxed in on all sides by heavy human habitation.
Gir lions have started moving outwards from the sanctuary and establishing homes outside the protected areas. The lions are now spread over in the vicinity of 1050 villages in three contiguous districts -
Amreli
Amreli is a city and a municipality in Amreli district in Indian state of Gujarat.
History
It is believed that during 534 AD Amreli existed was formerly known as Anumanji, Amlik and then Amravati. The city is named in ancient Gujrati as ''A ...
,
Bhavnagar
Bhavnagar is a city in the Bhavnagar district of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, a States of India, state of India. It was founded in 1723 by Gohil Koli, Bhavsinhji Takhtasinhji Gohil (1703–1764). It was the capital of Bhavnagar State, whi ...
and
Junagadh
Junagadh () is the headquarters of Junagadh district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Located at the foot of the Girnar hills, southwest of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar (the state capital), it is the seventh largest city in the state.
Literally t ...
.
Sheopur introduction of 1904
The
Maharaja of Gwalior
Gwalior state was a semi-autonomous Maratha state. It was centred in modern-day Madhya Pradesh, arising due to the rise of the Maratha Empire and fragmentation of the Mughal Empire.
It was ruled by the House of Scindia (anglicized from Shinde ...
, on being encouraged by
Lord Curzon
George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), styled Lord Curzon of Kedleston between 1898 and 1911 and then Earl Curzon of Kedleston between 1911 and 1921, was a British Conservative statesman ...
in 1904, imported cubs of
African lion
The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus '' Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult ...
s and attempted to introduce them in the wild in the forests near Sheopur. The introduced lions took to raiding livestock and some even turned to
man-eating
A man-eater is an animal that preys on humans as a pattern of hunting behavior. This does not include the scavenging of corpses, a single attack born of opportunity or desperate hunger, or the incidental eating of a human that the animal has kil ...
, subsequent to which they were all eventually tracked down and shot.
The Chandraprabha relocation of 1957
The concept of reintroduction for purposes of conservation was accepted in 1956 by the Indian Wildlife Board during a meeting of their executive committee at Sasan Gir and the offer by the state government of
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
to host a second population in the Chakia forests was accepted. In 1956 one lion and two lionesses were captured from Gir, placed in the Sakkarbuagh Zoo in Junagadh for nine months and then translocated in 1957 to the
Chandra Prabha Sanctuary
The Chandra Prabha Wildlife Sanctuary, also known as Chandraprabha, is situated in Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh state in central India. It is well endowed with beautiful picnic spots, dense forests, and scenic waterfalls like Rajdari, Dev ...
, near
Varanasi
Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.
*
*
*
* The city has a syncretic t ...
in
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
and newly established for the reintroduction. An enclosure was created with a high barbed wire fence within the sanctuary in which the lions were temporarily housed before being released in the sanctuary. Initially the lions prospered increasing in number to four in 1958, five in 1960, seven in 1962 and eleven in 1965 after which the population died out inexplicably.
Johnsingh (2006) attributes the failure of the translocation to three causes – inadequate area, lack of systematic monitoring using scientific techniques and unrestricted movement of grazing animals throughout the sanctuary possibly leading to conflict with herders.
Small size of area, the long period of captivity in Junagadh zoo, absence of education of the local villagers and lack of conflict resolution mechanisms are also listed as contributory factors in Chellam and Johnsingh (1999).
The Wildlife Institute of India initiative
The
Wildlife Institute of India
The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) is an autonomous natural resource service institution established in 1982 under the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate change, Government of India.
WII carries out wildlife research in areas of stu ...
(WII) began studying the Asiatic lion in its habitat in from 1986 onwards and collected fundamental data about the lion, its feeding, use of habitat and ranging habits. Key findings of the study were that the lions largely preyed upon wild herbivores such as
sambar (''Rusa unicolor'') and
chital
The chital or cheetal (''Axis axis''; ), also known as the spotted deer, chital deer, and axis deer, is a deer species native to the Indian subcontinent. It was first described and given a binomial name by German naturalist Johann Christian Po ...
(''Axis axis'') and that the size of home range was for females and for the males.
In 1990, the WII proposed the creation of a second wild population of Asiatic lions to safeguard the species against potential calamities in Gujarat's Gir National Park.
1993 PHVA report
In 1993, a workshop was held on the Population and Habitat Viability Assessment (PHVA) of Asiatic lion and the report was presented to the state forest departments in
Vadodara
Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capital ...
, Gujarat. State forest departments were asked to suggest suitable sites for reintroduction and provide the basic ecological data.
During the workshop, a number of teams were formed to focus on varied aspects of the conservation biology of the Asiatic lion such as monitoring, habitat (further subdivided into Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan sub-groups), population modelling, prey-base requirements, lion-human interactions, translocation, captive zoo animals, public education, veterinary, reproductive and genetic aspects etc.
The sites were assessed and ranked for suitability as follows:
*
Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary
Kuno National Park is national park and Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, India. It derives its name from Kuno River. It was established in 1981 as a wildlife sanctuary with an initial area of in the Sheopur and Morena districts. In 2018, ...
- found most suitable for reintroduction.
*
Sita Mata Wildlife Sanctuary
The Sita Mata Wildlife Sanctuary is a wildlife sanctuary situated in Pratapgarh and Chittaurgarh districts of Rajasthan Rajasthan, India, declared as a protected forest area by the Government of Rajasthan Notification No. F 11 (9) Revenue/8/7 ...
- later rejected due to human interference and inadequate prey population.
*
Darrah -
Jawahar Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary
Mukundara Hills National Park is a national park in Rajasthan, India with an area of . It was established in 2004 and consists of three wildlife sanctuaries: Darrah Wildlife Sanctuary, National Chambal Sanctuary, and Jawahar Sagar Wildlife Sanc ...
- later rejected due to degraded habitat and unsuitable geography.
*
Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary
Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary is located in the Rajsamand District of Rajasthan State in western India. It surrounds the Kumbhalgarh fortress and covers an area of . The sanctuary extends across the Aravalli Range, covering parts of Rajsamand ...
- assessed as having limited area, unsuitable terrain, limited water and prey base as well as disturbance.
*
Barda Wildlife Sanctuary
Barda Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Gujarat, India. It is situated approximately from Porbandar and west of Gir Forest National Park. Previous to its 1979 establishment as a wildlife sanctuary, Barda was a private reserve for Porbandar and Ja ...
- assessed as having scarcity of water, prey and forage, as well as encroachment and disturbance.
The PHVA report strongly favoured the scientific management of reintroduction of Asiatic lions to another site:
The PHVA deliberations were followed by visits to the three most promising site, viz Kuno, Darrah-Jawaharsagar and Sitamata WLS by a survey team of WII headed by Dr
Ravi Chellam. The team evaluated sites over various parameters and compared the same with respect to Gir Forest for determining the suitability of sites. They presented their findings in 1995 to the Government of India and the state forest departments.
WII researchers confirmed that the Palpur-Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary was the most promising location to re-establish a free ranging population of the Asiatic lions and in 2007 certified it ready to receive its first batch of translocated lions.
Project framework
The framework of the Lion Introduction Project emerged from the transformation of a Monitoring Committee, set up by the Government of India, which met on 10 March 2004 for effective implementation of the reintroduction at Kuno.
At the meeting the WII Site Survey was examined and it was understood that Kuno Palpur Sanctuary was the most suitable site for reintroduction. The Committee formulated a three phase framework for the conservation project to last for two decades as follows :
* During the first phase, slated from 1995-2000, the 24 villages would be shifted out of the sanctuary and the habitat would be improved.
* The second phase would last from 2000 to 2005 and would include fencing off of the lion reintroduction site, the actual trans-location, as well as research and monitoring.
* The final phase III would last from 2005 to 2015 and would focus on eco-development of the region.
At that point in time, the project was in Phase II and 18 of the 24 villages had been rehabilitated from Kuno. The refusal of Gujarat state to provide lions was mentioned during this meeting by the Chief Wildlife Warden of Gujarat. A number of steps were approved with consensus which included the engaging of the Gujarat State Government as to the necessity of the project, preparation of a trans-location road map, fresh assessment of prey base of Kuno by WII and continued funding support for welfare measures and habitat improvement for the existing fauna at Kuno.
Lion reintroduction at Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary
Establishing the wildlife sanctuary
The Madhya Pradesh state forest department notified of the Kuno Palpur area as a Wildlife Sanctuary in 1981. In April 2002, a separate Wildlife Division was established for Kuno, effectively increasing the protected area for wildlife to .
Rehabilitation of villagers
Twenty four villages of the
Sahariya
The Sahar, Sehariya, or Sahariya are an ethnic group in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. The Saharias are mainly found in the districts of Morena, Sheopur, Bhind, Gwalior, Datia, Shivpuri, Vidisha and Guna districts of Madhya Pradesh and Ba ...
tribe, comprising 1545 families, were moved out from the core area and rehabilitated by the state government with assistance from the Central Government. Due to a paucity of suitable revenue lands in the vicinity of Kuno, the state government proposed relocating the villages on degraded protected forests, a move approved by the
Ministry of Environment and Forests
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is an Indian government ministry. This ministry is headed by Secretary Rank senior most IAS officer. The ministry portfolio is currently held by Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister of ...
(MOEF) of the Government of India, which granted its approval under Section 2 of the
Forest (Conservation) Act 1980 for diversion of . By 2002-2003, all 24 villages and the identified families were relocated outside Kuno and the former village area converted into grasslands.
The Madhya Pradesh state government informed the Supreme Court that each family was given of cultivable land, in addition to for housing along with building constructional material costing Rs 1,00,000/- per house. The net outflow to the Central Government was Rs.15 crores.
Major gaps remain in the implementation of the rehabilitation measures, with villagers alleging that they have got little of the rehabilitation package they were promised.
The negative economic impact of the displacement to villagers from Kuno sanctuary has raised a controversy over the merits of species preservation via dislocation of human populations living inside Protected Areas.
NGO
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
s, such as the
Samrakshan Trust, have been working for better rehabilitation of villagers who agreed to move out of the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary.
Opposition by the Gujarat Government
In 2004, the state government refused to part with the first pride of 19 animals planned for relocation. The state considers the lions as "heritage of the state" and the issue of handing over lions has become a political issue.
Mangubhai Patel, then State Forest Minister, went on record to state that:
::
As early as 2009, the continued opposition of the Gujarat state government led to the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department's exploration of the possibility of procuring zoo-bred Asiatic lions and shifting them and their descendants to Palpur-Kuno.
The
Gujarat
Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...
state government has, over time, made various arguments against translocating lions to Madhya Pradesh (MP), such as that the Kuno sanctuary was not suitable lion habitat and that it had inadequate prey base, that MP had been unable to provide adequate protection to tigers in its
Panna National Park
Panna National Park is a national park located in Panna and Chhatarpur districts of Madhya Pradesh in India.
It has an area of . It was declared in 1994 as the twenty second Tiger reserve of India and the fifth in Madhya Pradesh,
Panna was ...
and the lions if reintroduced there would be in danger, that the proposed
introduction
Introduction, The Introduction, Intro, or The Intro may refer to:
General use
* Introduction (music), an opening section of a piece of music
* Introduction (writing), a beginning section to a book, article or essay which states its purpose and g ...
of
Southern African cheetah
The Southeast African cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus jubatus'') is the nominate cheetah subspecies native to East and Southern Africa. The Southern African cheetah lives mainly in the lowland areas and deserts of the Kalahari, the savannahs of Oka ...
s to Kuno rendered it unsuitable for lion reintroduction.
The Gujarat State Wildlife Department proposed new homes for lions in the
Barda Wildlife Sanctuary
Barda Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Gujarat, India. It is situated approximately from Porbandar and west of Gir Forest National Park. Previous to its 1979 establishment as a wildlife sanctuary, Barda was a private reserve for Porbandar and Ja ...
and
Bhavnagar Amreli Forest instead.
Gir's lions have spread beyond the protective area and the measures of the state to engage this phenomenon are being portrayed as providing adequate dispersal to the lion population to prevent disease. Gujarat also played an emotional card by declaring before the Supreme Court that the lion was inextricably bound to the culture of Gujarat and that it was a "family member", hence could not be provided for translocation to Kuno.
This stand of Gujarat suffered a setback when on 15 April 2013, the
Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...
acknowledged translocation to Kuno as being in the best interest of the species and rejected the Gujarat Government's objections, instead ordering the translocation to be carried out within six months. A ''bandh'' was called in the villages adjoining the Sasan Gir region on 18 April 2013 protesting the Supreme Court decision.
Supreme Court verdict and aftermath
In light of the State Government of Gujarat's refusal to permit the reintroduction of Asiatic lions, a writ petition was filed in 1995 by the Centre for Environment Law and WWF-I in the Indian Supreme Court to get the Gujarat State Government to release a few prides of Asiatic lions for the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary. The Indian Supreme Court fast-tracked the case and delivered a judgement on 16 April 2013 permitting the reintroduction of lions to Kuno, over-ruling the objections of the Gujarat Government.
The Gujarat Government filed on 1 July 2013 for a review in the Supreme Court of its 16 April ruling. In its petition, the Gujarat state government claimed that "top carnivores have never been successfully translocated".
The state has put forward the argument that translocation would break social bonds between members of groups or prides, which are vital for lion survival. The reported presence of tiger cubs in Palpur-Kuno was emphasised, saying that it could result in conflict between these top predators. The state proposed, instead, a second home for lions within Gujarat itself, claiming it would have numerous advantages including being in tune with international guidelines.
The continued reluctance of the state to part with lions for translocation has come under criticism from prominent environmentalists.
Post the verdict, fears have been voiced by Gujarati environmentalists over the gun culture of Madhya Pradesh and number of firearms in Sheopur, the region where the Kuno Palpur sanctuary is located and it is suggested that translocation to such an area would be in violation of IUCN norms on the subject. With the release of
IUCN
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...
guidelines on translocation, opponents of the project have cited from the provisions and also claimed that the history of translocations especially in India is dismal and hence translocation is not favoured.
The natural spread of over-populated lions from an original range of over to an area extending over , is considered to mitigate against the risk of epidemic disease.
2014
The Gujarat government's curative petition against relocation of the wild Asiatic lions from the Gir Forest to Madhya Pradesh was dismissed by the Supreme Court on 14 August 2014.
In the face of continued opposition, the Madhya Pradesh government is considering an alternate plan to release zoo-bred lions from
Hyderabad
Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...
and
Sakkarbaug, a move which has been criticised in the light of the deaths of two newly translocated zoo-bred lions in the
safari park at Etawah,
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
.
After the dismissal of the Gujarat State petition, two NGOs from Gujarat have filed separate petitions against the translocation order, one on the grounds that certain relevant facts have not been brought to the notice of the apex court, the other stating that the importance of Kuno-Palpur as a corridor for migrating tigers between
Ranthambore National Park
Ranthambore National Park is a national park in Rajasthan, India, with an area of . It is bounded to the north by the Banas River and to the south by the Chambal River. It is named after the historic Ranthambore Fort, which lies within the park ...
in Rajasthan and
Madhav National Park in Madhya Prdesh had been downplayed.
2017
As of December 2017, Madhya Pradesh still has not received lions from Gujarat. For this reason, it may have given up on trying to acquire them.
2018
As of October 2018, the lions were still in Gujarat, and 23 of them were found dead. 4 of them had died of
canine distemper virus
Canine may refer to:
Zoology and anatomy
* a dog-like Canid animal in the subfamily Caninae
** ''Canis'', a genus including dogs, wolves, coyotes, and jackals
** Dog, the domestic dog
* Canine tooth, in mammalian oral anatomy
People with the surn ...
, which killed 1,000
East African lion
''Panthera leo melanochaita'' is a lion subspecies in Southern and East Africa. In this part of Africa, lion populations are regionally extinct in Lesotho, Djibouti and Eritrea, and are threatened by loss of habitat and prey base, killing by local ...
s in the
Serengeti
The Serengeti ( ) ecosystem is a geographical region in Africa, spanning northern Tanzania. The protected area within the region includes approximately of land, including the Serengeti National Park and several game reserves. The Serengeti ...
ecoregion
An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...
.
Translocation plan within Gujarat
The plan is to
reintroduce a pride or two of wild, free-ranging Asiatic lions from
Gir Forest
Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, also known as Sasan Gir, is a forest, national park, and wildlife sanctuary near Talala Gir in Gujarat, India. It is located north-east of Somnath, south-east of Junagadh and south-west of Amreli ...
in the neighboring Indian state of
Gujarat
Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...
to start with.
In compliance with the Supreme Court order of 15 April 2013, the
Ministry of Environment and Forests
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is an Indian government ministry. This ministry is headed by Secretary Rank senior most IAS officer. The ministry portfolio is currently held by Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister of ...
has constituted a panel for deciding the best course of action in translocation of animals to Gir. The panel comprises 12 members including member secretary
National Tiger Conservation Authority
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) was established in December 2005, following a recommendation of the Tiger Task Force, constituted by the Prime Minister of India for reorganised management of Project Tiger and the many Tiger Re ...
, the Chief Wildlife Wardens of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, member
Wildlife Institute of India
The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) is an autonomous natural resource service institution established in 1982 under the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate change, Government of India.
WII carries out wildlife research in areas of stu ...
, and scientists Drs Ravi Chellam,
Y.V. Jhala, NK Ranjeet Singh and PR Sinha. The panel will advice both the states on technical aspect of translocation, decide the composition of animals to be translocated, select the prides and animals, supervise the translocation, monitor it and periodically report to the Ministry.
During the first deliberations on 29 July 2013, the panel acceded the need to follow the recent IUCN translocation guidelines but brushed aside Gujarat's objections against the process. A two-member team comprising Dr Ravi Chellam and Dr
Y.V. Jhala has been set up to decide the translocation protocol and report within six weeks.
Gujarat objected to meeting of the 12-member panel on 29 July 2013 before its petition had been reviewed and also to the presence of tiger experts on the panel, claiming that lion experts from Gujarat had been ignored, however that petition was rejected by the Supreme Court.
In a further development, in April 2015, the Union government has admitted that Madhya Pradesh will have to enlarge the wildlife sanctuary's size, from to in order to implement the translocation of the Asiatic lions to Kuno-Palpur from Gujarat's Sasan Gir, a suggestion made in the original project report. This is the first time that the Government of India has accepted that the sanctuary needs to be enlarged. However, the expansion would require the relocation of several big villages, a move the Madhya Pradesh government is not keen to undertake. The Madhya Pradesh Forest Department is of the view that the present sanctuary area and its buffer total over 700 km
2 and are therefore adequate, but have made no mention of notifying the buffer zone area also as a sanctuary.
In a reversal of position, the Ministry of Environment and Forests decided in a meeting in June 2015 against translocation at present on the grounds that it would be detrimental to the breeding and survival of the lions as they lived in social prides. The turn-around of stance has been attributed by environmentalists supporting the translocation to
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
who had as Chief Minister of Gujarat stated that the lion was the pride of Gujarat and had publicly declared his opposition to the transfer of lions outside the state.
See also
*
Wildlife conservation
Wildlife conservation refers to the practice of protecting wild species and their habitats in order to maintain healthy wildlife species or populations and to restore, protect or enhance natural ecosystems. Major threats to wildlife include habita ...
*
Reintroduction
Species reintroduction is the deliberate release of a species into the wild, from captivity or other areas where the organism is capable of survival. The goal of species reintroduction is to establish a healthy, genetically diverse, self-sustainin ...
*
in-situ conservation
''In-situ'' conservation is the on-site conservation or the conservation of genetic resources in natural populations of plant or animal species, such as forest genetic resources in natural populations of Teagan species. This process protects th ...
*
Ex-situ conservation
Svalbard GLOBAL SEED BANK, an ''ex situ'' conservation.
''Ex situ'' conservation literally means, "off-site conservation". It is the process of protecting an endangered species, variety or breed, of plant or animal outside its natural habitat; ...
*
List of Protected areas in India
There are four categories of protected areas in India, constituted under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Tiger reserves consist of areas under national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. There are 52 tiger reserves in India. the protected area ...
*
International Union for Conservation of Nature
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...
(IUCN)
*
Extinction
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
*
Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education
The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) is an autonomous organisation or governmental agency under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. Headquartered in Dehradun, its functions are to conduct fore ...
*
Iran's Project Lion
*
Cheetah reintroduction in India
Notes
References
{{Reflist, 2
External links
* Information on Asiatic lion and Gir Forest at the website o
Asiatic Lion Protection Society (ALPS)Aaj Tak Video News Report (in Hindi) Available on YouTube: Gir lions in Palpur Kuno Sanctuary - Report by Rajesh badal.mp4 by Rajesh Badal. Uploaded on Feb 14, 2011.
Wildlife conservation in India
Conservation projects
Animal reintroduction
Mammals of India
Panthera leo leo