Lion numbers outside forest areas grew by 97% in 5 years

Himanshu Kaushik | TNN | Jul 9, 2020, 04:00 IST
Ahmedabad: According to the Gujarat forest department’s Poonam Avalokan enumeration of lions that was carried out in June, lion numbers outside protected forest areas grew by 97% since 2015, while there was a 3.1% decline inside protected areas. The lion population inside protected areas went from 356 to 345, and outside went from 167 to 329 in five years.
The total population has been pegged at 674, a 28.87% increase, the highest for any five-year period so far. The increase was 27% in the 2015 count, when the total population was 523.

An analysis of the Poonam Avalokan numbers by the forest department revealed that lion numbers registered a 38% drop in the Sutrapada, Kodinar, Una and Veraval coastal belt, likely to due to increased industrial activity. These animals may have moved south-eastwards, towards Rajula, Jafrabad and Nagashree, where foresters found a 232% increase.
Foresters said the the enumeration found 674 lions, at 294 locations in four districts: Bhavnagar, Amreli, Junagadh and Gir Somnath. While there have been lion sightings in Botad, Surendranagar and Rajkot districts, none were documented during the avalokan.

The enumeration revealed that the population density in the Asiatic lion landscape is 3.03 lions/100sq km, with a density of 1.65 in non-forest areas compared to 15.2 in forest areas (including the National Park, wildlife sanctuaries, reserved forests, protected forests and unclassified forests).
A senior researcher who asked not to be named said the high density in forest areas implies that the carrying capacity of these areas are now saturated, and lions are moving out of these areas. He said the carrying capacity of Gir sanctuary is not more than 270 to 280 lions. He added that the need of the hour is to have more protected areas and sanctuaries in the region.
Former Gujarat forest officer and lion expert H S Singh said, “The population in the sanctuary had been saturated for the last 15 years and there is no scope for an increase in population within the sanctuary. Growth has been witnessed outside the sanctuary only.”
He further said that a decrease of 10-odd lions in forest areas is not significant because on that particular day some lions may not have been sighted or may have moved outside the sanctuary. On the decline in the Sutrapada, Kodinar, Una and Veraval belt, he said this coastal belt has seen a lot of human pressure and developments the lion population here would see a decline. Towards Rajula, Jafrabad and Bhavnagar, there is plenty of food and cattle available and hence the lion population is shifting along the coast towards Bhavnagar.

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