Poachers killed a lion in 2016, admits Gujarat govt

The Rajya Sabha was told that 50 unnatural lion deaths were reported between 2015 and 2018

Himanshu Kaushik | TNN | Oct 28, 2018, 07:04 IST

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat government has always maintained that Gir is a safe haven for the Asiatic Lions, but in reply to a question in the budget session of the Rajya Sabha this year, the state government for the first time since 2007 admitted that a lion was killed by poachers in June 2016.

Giving details of lion deaths in Gir from 2015 to 2018, on a question raised by Congress MP from Andhra Pradesh, Dr T Subbarami Reddy, Union ministry of forest and environment informed the House that the poaching incident was reported in Vadal. The Rajya Sabha was told that 50 unnatural deaths were reported between 2015 and 2018.

Last year, one of the absconding accused in the 2007 lion poaching case, Sarfaraz Qureshi, was arrested from Fatehpur area in Allahabad (now Prayagraj) in Uttar Pradesh by a team of Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS). Eighteen persons have so far been arrested in the 2007 poaching case.

According to Sanjay Mehta, the chief conservator of forests (CCF), the incident had taken place in Vadal area and one Balu Moji, a resident of the village, was also arrested. "He had laid the trap in the revenue area. During investigation, Moji claimed that the trap was not for lions but for animals like neelgai," Mehta said, adding, "The case is pending in a court and Moji is out on bail." A former CCF, who had served in Junagadh, said that usually farmers lay such traps for catching neelgais and to keep them away from the fields. "We usually do not register such cases as poaching," he said.

Even IUCN has in its report in 2016 stated that though the lion population outside the protected area of the Gir sanctuary has increased by around 400%, these lions in Gujarat are under threat of illegal trade of body parts, similar to that in Africa.
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