TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Rajkot: Two young male Asiatic Lions were found dead in an open well near Mitiyana village in Amreli district on Friday morning, once again highlighting the danger posed by such wells in and around Gir Forest in Saurashtra to the threatened jungle king's population.
On receiving the news,forest officials from Savarkindla and Dhari range rushed to Mitiyana and found the lions dead in the open well, deputy forest conservator SM Raja. He said primary investigation revealed the lions, which were about four year old, fell accidentally into the well located in the field belonging to Premji Tapu Delwadiya.
As the well was not covered, the lions fell into it and were drowned, the official said, adding that no injury marks were found on the bodies of the animals. Raja said the nails of the two lions were intact, which negated any assumption about it being a poaching. The official said it seemed that the lions did make an attempt to come out of the well but were unsuccessful.
Chief conservator of forest Bharat Pathak said under joint programme under taken by the stat government in assistance with some NGOs, work was on to cover open wells in and around Gir forest. Last year, about 4,000 open wells have been covered in the region.
Source: The Times of Inda, Ahmedabad Saturday November 8, 2008 Page:5.
1 comment:
Bad news.Open wells should have been coverd on war footing. But the way lions stray from their zone an go helter skelter, It may not be so easy to keep an eye on them. Wa s this too a case of straying far from the forest?
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