SAVE THE ASIATIC LION FROM EXTINCTION

On June 10, 2020 Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated a historic rise of 29 per cent in the Asiatic lion population : 151 between 2015 and 2020.

Corona virus is affecting the Asiatic Lions said the news on 4th May 2021.

According to a Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) report:

·     Ninety-two Asiatic lions have died in Gujarat’s Asiatic Lion Landscape since January 2020. These 92 have died in five months, 60 have died in just April and May 2020.

·     Down to Earth reported, ‘Nearly 200 Asiatic lions died in and around Gir in 2016 & 2017’

·     Gujarat government in March 2018 had said that 184 lions died in two years,

·     Diseases like rabies, pneumonia, urinary tract infection, anaemia, hepatitis and multiple organ failure caused half (44) of the 85 Asiatic lion deaths in the Asiatic Lion Landscape (ALL), Gujarat between January and May 2020, according to a government report.

THE LIONS FACE THE THREAT OF EXTINCTION AS THEIR ENTIRE POPULATION IS IN A LIMITED AREA OF GIR.

All eggs in one basket is a potentially dangerous situation. An epidemic or natural calamity can wipe out these majestic felines if the population is concentrated in one area. After almost two decades of legal battles, the Supreme Court gave its verdict in April 2013 and directed the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Government of India (GoI) to expedite the lion reintroduction in Kuno in Madhya Pradesh in compliance with the IUCN guidelines of carnivore reintroduction.

The deaths of these majestic cats, have again brought to the fore a 25-year old demand of wildlife activists to move some of the lions to the Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, to avoid exactly the kind of deaths that are happening.. Under such circumstances, translocating is a way to protect a species. But the efforts of the activists have not been successful due to reasons that are seemingly political.

“For many years now, the Gujarat government has been giving excuses for not enabling the translocation of lions to the Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. “Why is the Supreme Court order of 2013 not being implemented? Why are we endangering the world’s only population of wild Asiatic lions?”

In 2016 a draft action plan was developed under the directives of the Additional Director General (Wildlife) to guide a successful lion reintroduction in Kuno. The plan enlists various ecological, biological, management and social facets in accordance with the IUCN/SSC guidelines to develop a time-bound protocol for implementing the reintroduction program.

The MoEF&CC had formed the committee on 29 May 2020. It comprised the assistant inspector general of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, joint director of the ministry’s wildlife division, a representative from the Wildlife Institute of India and a veterinary doctor from Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly. The MoEF&CC order constituting the committee said, “The committee should visit the area immediately. They are required to inquire into the incidence of death, cause of death, preventive and prophylactic measures adopted and other necessary details of the high mortality rate of Asiatic lions in Gir,” The committee visited the area between May 31 and June 1 and a draft was submitted to the MoEF&CC in the first week of June 2020.

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, up to 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 four years.

Self-sustaining size. It is reported that according to Kuno divisional forest officer, current habitat management initiatives by Madhya Pradesh Forest Department (MPFD) inside Kuno Wild Life Sanctuary (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.

Readiness of Kuno Sanctuary to receive the lions. the Madhya Pradesh Government relocated 23 villages containing 1,547 families from Kuno Sanctuary between 1996 and 2001  in preparation for the new lion population. Relocated villages are developed into large grasslands, extending in size to as much as 1,500 ha in some cases “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.

According to Atul Chouhan, Kuno Sangharsh Samiti, now with about 2,000 members, was formed by 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.

“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 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.

Gujarat’s reluctance. 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 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.

Let us not endanger the Asiatic Lion’s future, KUNO is ready and waiting.

Lets ensure their time bound relocation.

Let us cut the red tape and bring about a change.

Let us make MoEF & CC Government of India issue clear, compulsive and time bound orders TO RELOCATE AND SAVE THE ASIATIC LIONS.