Parliamentary panel worried about shifting of lions

Vijaysinh Parmar & Himanshu Kaushik | TNN | May 5, 2017, 01.34 PM IST
AHMEDABAD/RAJKOT: Contrary to the apex court judgement, the parliamentary standing committee on science and technology, environment and forests, has in its recent report, expressed its apprehensions at the shifting of lions to Kuno Palpur from Gujarat.

The committee report, which was tabled in the Rajya Sabha


The report says, "During the meeting, the committee also expressed apprehension about the shifting of some extra lions from Gujarat to Kuno Palpur in Madhya Pradesh. In this context, the committee was informed by the ministry that carnivore populations restricted to a single site are prone to various epidemics as well as natural calamities or retaliatory killings, which may result in their extinction."


However, the committee report has noted the fact that lions were found in an area of around 22,000 sq km. The present distribution range of Asiatic lions, also called the "Asiatic Lion Landscape" (ALL) falls in the seven districts of Saurashtra region of Gujarat state. ALL is also known for high density of large carnivore population in many protected areas such as Gir National Park, Gir sanctuary, Girnar sanctuary, Pania sanctuary, Mitiyala sanctuary and many other reserved and protected forests.

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It would be better to relocate the human population encroaching in the Lion's habitat than relocating the lions into new area .The humans have totally more than halved the Air Jungle and they are th... Read Moreozind95

Officials in the Gujarat forest department said the report comes at a time when the 12-member committee, formed on the apex court's order of April 2013, ordered the translocation of lions to Kuno Palpur.

The committee in its last meeting in December 2016 at Kuno, had stated that the wildlife habitat was "ideally suited for a second home for lions". However, in principle, the Gujarat government had not opposed translocation, the minutes showed that Gujarat wants all 33 studies, mandated by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) in 2013 for wildlife relocation across the world, to be conducted to check whether Kuno was suitable for translocation or not.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/parliamentary-panel-worried-about-shifting-of-lions/articleshow/58522990.cms