Asiatic lion census ends, officials expect a rise in population.

Published On: Wed, May 6th, 2015

Science | By Anisha Khatun 

 

The four-day census of Asiatic lions in the Gir sanctuary finally got over Tuesday afternoon with more than 2,200 forest staffers, officers and volunteers completing field trips in an area spread over 22,000 square kilometres .After the first round officials expect a rise in the population of big cats.
The numbers would be announced by Chief Minister Anandiben Patel on May 10 after the final compilation of the data collected.
Additional principal chief conservator of forest S C Pant said “We today finished the field exercise for census in eight regions in and around the Gir sanctuary and now we will start compiling the data collected in the last five days.”
Around 600 teams of enumerators including wild-life experts, government officials, trackers and volunteers of NGOs were involved in the exercise.
The first lion census was carried out in 1936, when the area was a part of the princely state of Junagadh. It recorded existence of 287 lions. In 2010 census the lion population was found to have increased to 411 from 359 in 2005.
Forest department officials said that the number of sightings of the lions was very encouraging; with indications that their population outside the Gir sanctuary had risen substantially particularly the number of cubs in the age group of 0-3.
Asiatic lions, who are found only in Gir, fall in the “endangered” category of wild animals.

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