25 deaths unnatural
- Ninety-five Asiatic lions died between April 2015 and March 2016. Twenty-five of these died unnaturally
- Another 67 lions died from April last year to date
Manas Dasgupta
Ahmedabad, March 21
The Gujarat Forest Department has admitted that more than 160 Asiatic
lions have died in the Gir forest in the last two years since the 2015
census put their population at record 523.
This included death of 95 lions from April 2015 to March 2016, and
another 67 from April last year to date. What was more shocking of the
95 deaths recorded last year was that 25 died unnaturally, including of
electrocution by coming in contact with live wires put up by farmers to
save their crops from herbivorous animals, and falling into wells left
open by farmers in their fields, the department revealed in a reply to a
query under the RTI Act.
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Almost all unnatural deaths were recorded in the areas outside the
protected sanctuary zone in the periphery of the villages falling within
Gir forest as under pressure of increasing population and shortage of
prey, a number of Asiatic lions fanned outside the sanctuary zone and
into the habituated villages. The wildlife experts said some of the
carcasses of the lions were found in such highly decomposed conditions
that it was even difficult to ascertain the exact causes of their death.
The high death rate of the lions concerns environmentalists who have
urged the state government to expand the protected zone to cover the
wastelands and some other areas in the periphery, particularly because
the state government was opposed to the idea of shifting a few species
to Kuno-Palpur forests in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh to create a second
home for the Asiatic lions.
Meanwhile, a man-eater sloth bear, which had strayed out of the forest
areas in Danta in Banaskantha district in north Gujarat and killed three
persons besides injuring four others, was killed by sharp-shooters in a
joint operation by the foresters from Danta, Gir Sanctuary and even
Delhi who were rushed to the area this afternoon after the locals raised
the alarm.http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/160-lions-die-in-gir-in-2-yrs/380445.html
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