On Might 21, the forest division of the western Indian state of Gujarat launched outcomes of the nation’s first lion inhabitants estimation since 2020. In line with the census, India’s wild lion inhabitants – solely concentrated in Gujarat – has risen by 32 % over the previous 5 years to 891 lions.
India’s lion conservation efforts have lengthy been centered on the Gir forest and surrounding areas of Gujarat, particularly because the creation of the Gir Nationwide Park and Sanctuary in 1965. As we speak, lions have dispersed and established separate satellite tv for pc populations outdoors the Gir area and are present in 11 districts in Gujarat.
However for the primary time, the census counted extra lions throughout 9 satellite tv for pc populations (497) than the core inhabitants (394) in Gir. These embody three new populations in neighbouring districts of Gir, together with the Barda Wildlife Sanctuary, areas round Jetpur metropolis, and areas round Babra and Jasdan cities — all in Gujarat.
The census report has earmarked Barda Wildlife Sanctuary as a “second house” for the massive cat in Gujarat, echoing the stance of the state and central governments, which even have argued in favour of creating and managing Barda to host extra lions. Certainly, that is among the major targets of the 29,277 million Indian rupee ($341m) Challenge Lion conservation programme introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities in March.
However the surging variety of lions masks challenges that confront the way forward for the species in India, say specialists, and questions stay over whether or not the nation is doing sufficient to minimise human-animal battle and make sure the long-term conservation of the animal. On June 25, a lion mauled a five-year-old boy to loss of life in Gujarat’s Amreli district, after dragging the kid away from a farm.
We unpack the important thing findings of the census and the important thing battles forward for the massive cat in India.
How have been the lions counted?
As per the Gujarat Forest Division, the lion inhabitants estimation was carried out over two 24-hour recording schedules from Might 11-13. The state’s lion panorama was divided into 735 sampling areas, every entrusted to an enumerator and two assistant enumerators. Lions have been positioned and photographed with digital cameras, and cross-verified with adjoining sampling areas to keep away from duplication, in accordance with the report.
Yadvendradev Jhala, an skilled on massive cat conservation and previously with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), nevertheless, cautioned that “double counting” can’t be dominated out, and on the similar time, some lions may need been missed “because of the time constraint” imposed by the two-day train.
Ravi Chellam, a veteran wildlife biologist concerned with lion conservation since 1985, questioned the logic of a strategy that required area employees to remain alert for twenty-four hours on two consecutive days. “One can properly think about the fatigue ranges and diminished state of alertness of the sphere employees,” he mentioned. “I discover it tough to consider that dependable and correct information might be collected with such an method.”
In line with each specialists, there are extra strong and dependable scientific strategies, like combining images of lions with the usage of whisker patterns – much like human fingerprints – to establish particular person lions.
Nonetheless, Jhala mentioned that the precise rely is probably going not very totally different from the census quantity.
What’s behind the sharp rise in lion numbers?
Consultants say {that a} mixture of the Gujarat state authorities’s insurance policies and the adaptability of lions has contributed to the profitable rise within the numbers.
In line with Jhala, lions will proceed to increase their inhabitants so long as there may be meals and canopy out there, and the animals aren’t attacked. “There’s meals within the type of livestock, useless carcasses for scavenging, in addition to feral cattle for predation,” he mentioned.
The Gujarat authorities’s “compensation for livestock loss is sort of close to market worth and is revised frequently to replicate present market charges,” Jhala mentioned. This has allowed continued human-lion coexistence.
In the meantime, the brand new census exhibits that the coastal Gujarat district of Bhavnagar and adjoining areas alongside the state’s coast – removed from the dry deciduous habitats of Gir – at the moment are house to 212 lions. The thorny shrubs of the invasive Prosopis juliflora species (a sort of mesquite) alongside the coast present “refuge for lions by means of the day, they usually can come out at night time to feed in agropastoral landscapes,” Jhala mentioned.
What number of extra lions can Gujarat host?
Since 2010, Gujarat’s lion inhabitants has greater than doubled, and their territorial vary has elevated by 75 %, from 20,000 to 35,000 sq. kilometres (7,700 to 13,500 sq. miles). Nonetheless, solely 1800sq km falls below protected areas, of which solely 250sq km is unique to lions.
In line with the census, 45 % of lions recorded have been present in non-forested areas corresponding to wastelands, agricultural lands and close to human habitats.
“They run the danger of falling into open wells, being run over by heavy autos and trains, getting electrocuted and likewise contracting infections,” Chellam mentioned. He identified that lions have been frequently documented in uncommon places such because the terraces of properties, within the basement parking a lot of lodges, and on busy highways.
Chellam argued that “the area as a complete has far exceeded its carrying capability.” He says it’s not smart to have an “rising lion inhabitants in what are primarily human habitations”.
Jhala agreed. “The query is: How a lot are individuals prepared to tolerate a big carnivore of their neighbourhood?”
What’s the influence of hovering lion numbers on the individuals of Gujarat?
In line with a human-lion battle research within the Conservation Biology journal printed in November, there was a ten % annual enhance within the variety of villages in Gujarat reporting livestock assaults and a 15 % enhance in livestock killed per 12 months.
The paper makes use of information collected from 2012-2017. Jhala, who a co-author of the research, anticipates rising human-lion battle.
“It’s not straightforward to stay with a big carnivore,” he mentioned. “You be taught which you can’t let your youngsters roam round within the fields at night time, that it’s essential to clear the vegetation close to your huts, that going out for defecation within the area throughout twilight hours is to be prevented, that you simply want walled corrals in your livestock.”
Chellam agreed. “Whereas the rise within the variety of lions is seen by many, and particularly the federal government, as a constructive signal, the truth is that increasingly more lions are risking themselves in addition to the lives of tens of 1000’s of individuals,” he mentioned. “There have been quite a few cases of individuals harassing lions and likewise an rising development of lions attacking individuals.”
Is Barda a ‘second house’ for the lion?
As per the census report, for the primary time since 1879, the Barda Wildlife Sanctuary has a longtime lion inhabitants (17) inside its vary. Whereas the Gujarat authorities pitches Barda as a “second house” for lions, Chellam and Jhala say its small dimension and proximity to Gir imply that it fails the take a look at of what qualifies as a geographically distinct habitat that may maintain a “second” lion inhabitants.
“The satellite tv for pc inhabitants in Barda counts as a variety growth for lions, but it surely can’t be thought of a separate inhabitants since they’re contiguous with Gir,” Jhala mentioned.
“The entire level in translocating lions to ascertain a ‘second’ free-ranging inhabitants is to make sure geographical isolation, to mitigate the dangers of getting the whole inhabitants of an endangered species at a single web site,” Chellam defined.
Barda is 100km from Gir, and simply 200sq km in dimension, in contrast with 1,400sq km of core protected space in Gir. “It [Barda] is a small space with a really low-density prey inhabitants. It’s incapable of internet hosting a viable inhabitants of lions,” he added.
“The dangers are quite a few and embody cyclones, floods, forest fires, illness outbreaks, political selections, droughts, poaching, violence and wars.”
Why aren’t lions being moved outdoors Gujarat?
That’s a query that has piqued conservationists – and pissed off even the Supreme Court docket of India.
In April 2013, the nation’s prime court docket ordered the Gujarat state authorities to translocate a number of Asiatic lions to Kuno Nationwide Park within the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh inside six months to create a geographically separate, free-ranging lion inhabitants. Kuno, with its massive tracts of forests and grasslands, was recognized as having the proper panorama and prey base for lions.
Although the Gujarat authorities assured the highest court docket that it might adjust to the order, 12 years later, the order continues to be to be applied, and neither the federal nor the state authorities has confronted any penalties. “It is rather disappointing to see the degrees of impunity with which the state authorities of Gujarat and likewise the federal government of India have been working in relation to the translocation of lions to Kuno,” Chellam mentioned.
In line with Jhala, it’s also a failure on the a part of wildlife biologists and conservationists. “You can’t do conservation with out the federal government. I feel biologists have failed in convincing the federal government that Kuno is a perfect place to have a second house for lions,” Jhala mentioned.
Haven’t cheetahs been moved to Kuno?
On September 17, 2022, eight Southeast African Cheetahs have been flown in from Namibia to Kuno Nationwide Park as a part of India’s efforts to reintroduce the cheetah to the nation. Cheetahs had beforehand gone extinct in India in 1952.
Nonetheless, the introduction of cheetahs to Kuno set off a debate over whether or not that will impede plans to additionally transfer lions to the Madhya Pradesh reserve.
Jhala, who led the 2022 plan to convey cheetahs again to India, mentioned it was “improbable” to have the animals again in India – and that lions and cheetahs might simply coexist in Kuno.
“Under no circumstances do cheetahs stop lions from going there. In reality, they’d do higher than cheetahs, the panorama and prey base in Kuno is ideal for lions,” he mentioned.
Bringing in lions is also useful for cheetahs, Jhala added. Kuno has one of many highest leopard densities on the planet, at 22 leopards per 100sq km. Leopards pose extra of a predatory menace to cheetahs; lions can assist scale back leopard density as they prey on leopards, particularly the younger ones.
Chellam, although, questioned the intentions of the cheetah reintroduction plan, which he alleged was “extra to proceed to stall and delay the translocation of lions [to Kuno] slightly than to preserve cheetahs”.
Like Jhala, Chellam mentioned that lions would do properly in Kuno. “Lions are very hardy and strong animals. If the translocation is deliberate and carried out rigorously, there isn’t any cause for the lions to not thrive in Kuno.”
What’s subsequent for the massive cat?
“It [lions in Gujarat] is a superb conservation story,” Jhala mentioned. “However loads might be executed for the lion as a species. Overlook about Kuno; we should always try to set up lion populations throughout its historic vary, inside and out of doors of India”. The outdated vary of lions in Asia prolonged from Persia to japanese India – the final of Asia’s lions outdoors India have been shot and killed in Iran within the Nineteen Forties.
The present focus of lions in simply Gujarat, Chellam mentioned, was a “ticking time bomb”.
With lion numbers ballooning in human habitats, he mentioned it was necessary for the federal government to recognise that “area and availability of fine high quality habitats are a extreme constraint [in Gujarat].”