by
Cat DiStasio, 09/22/15
In India, there is a place where Asiatic lions should be thriving, but instead they are mysteriously dying. It’s called the
Lion Safari,
and its purported goal is to help reintroduce the nearly-extinct
Asiatic lion to areas in India where this species used to live. The
small lion breeding program is situated near the town of Etawah, which
is the hometown of Akhilesh Yadav, the incumbent Chief Minister of Uttar
Pradesh. In the past year,
at least seven lions have died at the facility,
including two adult lions last fall and five newborn cubs this summer.
This means that all of the lion cubs born at the facility so far have
died soon after birth. The worst part about this tragedy is that nobody
outside the park really knows why the lions are dying.
CM Yadav has championed the Lion Safari as a pet project for years;
it’s a passion he inherited from his father, former Chief Minister
Mulayam Singh Yadav who originally conceived the concept in 2005. The
Lion Safari, as of right now, consists of a few buildings and acres of
fenced land and it, quite frankly, looks more akin to a prison yard than
a place where wild animals might thrive. Spread over 50 acres of land
with another 300 acres being kept as buffer zone, the project has been
marred by the consistent deaths, raising serious questions on the
infrastructure being used in maintaining the Safari.
The breeding program that isn’t
For a breeding program, there have been an exceptional number of lion
deaths at the safari. Four pair of Asiatic lions were brought in for
breeding between April and September 2014. One of the females died in
October, followed by a male on November 16 – both reportedly of heart
failure. Two of the lionesses gave birth this summer – just four days
apart in July. Two cubs from the first mother lion died within 24 hours
of their birth, and
another two of three that were born four days later also died
shortly after being born. At that time, government representatives
admitted that these losses were a tragedy that “[left] officials
clueless on how to protect the felines.”
The entire program was fraught with controversy surrounding the deaths of the first four cubs born at the park this summer. The
park’s sitting director K K Singh was removed
in early August and transferred to another program. His transfer came
after he was charged with attempted murder for assaulting a park
employee who spoke to the media about the cubs’ deaths.
Despite the unrest within the leadership of the Lion Safari itself,
government officials have reportedly been taking the deaths seriously,
for what it’s worth. When news broke that the first four cubs had died
within days of their births, India’s senior Forest officials, including
Chief Wildlife Warden Rupaq De,
moved into a temporary camp at the Lion Safari
to investigate. The Forest department’s Principal Secretary Sanjeev
Saran confirmed to The India Express that senior officials were camping
at Etawah, but it’s unknown how long that vigil lasted. “Doctors have
been called in from Gujarat and all efforts are on to save the sole
remaining cub,” he said in early August. That surviving cub was
reportedly being bottle fed, and there was no update on the cub’s
condition for two weeks, until it was announced that the remaining cub
had passed away on August 14.
It’s unclear whether government representatives remain at the center
now, and what if any actions will be taken to prevent future losses of
life. Throughout this debacle, the Lion Safari management has been
tight-lipped with the media. For some time, prior to the death of the
last cub, the park was turning away members of the media at the gate,
and personnel did not respond to inquiries from The India Express or
from Inhabitat.
Saving an endangered subspecies
The population of Asiatic lion, also known as Indian lions, are a
subspecies considered endangered since 2008. The majority of the lions
live in Gir Forest National Park, where a successful breeding program
has been raising and releasing entire prides of lions. Since 2010, lion
numbers have slowly but steadily increased, and the most recent 14th
Asiatic Lion Census 2015, conducted in May 2015, counted 523
individuals, a 27 percent increase compared to 2010 numbers. At the Gir
sanctuary breeding program, four lionesses gave birth to a total of 11
lion cubs earlier this summer and, as far as we can tell, all have
survived.
With such successful breeding programs elsewhere in Indian, it’s a
little perplexing that this one little center in Uttar Pradesh would
even try. It’s certain that, given such a faulty start, the Etawah Lion
Safari won’t be responsible for replenishing the subspecies anytime
soon. This is a project backed with the passion of powerful people, but
executed with tragic results. Until that changes, the Lion Safari could
be viewed as more of a hindrance to lions in India than a help.
What’s next?
After losing all five cubs that have been born in the breeding
program, in addition to the two adults who died last fall, the Lion
Safari is not in a very healthy position. The center has been widely
criticized for having inadequate staff to manage the big cats,
especially given the talk about adding other types of animals to the
park in the future, such as
leopards, deer, bears and antelopes. As far as the breeding program goes, it’s back to square one but safari management isn’t ready to give up.
“Sadly, all the five cubs died but we are starting afresh. We are
hopeful of the next round of breeding and pregnancy among the lioness,”
said Sanjay Srivastava, the newly-appointed director of the Etawah Lion
Safari. Srivastava took over the post from temporary director Anil
Patel, who was placed in charge of the Lion Safari after its original
director was charged with attempted murder.
Despite the complete lack of stability of the wildlife population at
the Lion Safari, members of the government are still holding on to a
bold vision for the future of the park. The hope is that, with a
successful breeding program, the center can be developed into a tourist
destination. Our investigation was unable to ascertain how serious this
endeavor might be or what kind of timeline is associated with it, but
the government has reached out to at least one firm for a design
proposal.
Archohm is the
India-based architecture and design firm
behind the concept for the tourist park, featured above. Designers Amit
Sharma, Naveen Rawat, Gaurav Dixit collaborated on the concept for an
impressive entry gate to the safari park, which features an enormous
sculptural wall with the cut-out silhouette of a majestic male lion,
positioned as an arch over the roadway, inviting visitors to cross the
threshold from the outside world into the lions’ domain.
Archohm told Inhabitat that the firm “felt the need for a holistic
development of the site and hence took the initiative of designing the
whole stretch between the entry to the site and the view point from
where the lions can be seen very closely.” The results are sprawling and
attractive, if a bit idealistic. The firm hasn’t been officially hired
for the project, and it’s unknown whether other design firms were asked
to submit proposals. If the Uttar Pradesh Tourism Department accepts the
proposal, it would have to find financing for the construction as well.
As lovers of wildlife and believers in conservation, we’re astounded
that we’ve just recently learned about the tragic losses at the Etawah
Lion Safari. We hope to hear good news from the park soon, such as the
addition of more trained veterinarians and eventually, as the center
director suggested, the promise of more lion cubs. What we know for
certain is that the government of Uttar Pradesh cannot continue to push
forward for the development of a tourist park until those working in the
breeding program figure out how to keep the lions alive.
+ Etawah Lion Safari
Images via Etawah Lion Safari and Studio Archohm
