Lion census to cover 10,000 sq km

Ahmedabad: The lion census to begin later this month, will be the first since the formation of the state to cover the entire coastal belt. The counting would be spread over 8,000-10,000 square km area. This census would be covering Bhavnagar, Amreli, Porbandar and Jungadh districts. Officials said that there was a possibility that they may go up to a village in Rajkot district.

The forest department officials said that they in 2006 by Faiyaz Khudsar, a trustee with the Biodiversity Conservation Trust of India, scheduled to be heard on May 5. There is a fear that if the census showed a good increase in the number of lions then the SC might direct Gujarat to give some lions to MP citing reasons of conservation.

The officials say that unlike earlier years, the last five years were the most eventful with even corporate houses from the state pitching in to save the lion. The government had also allocated Rs 40 crore for the same.

A task force was also formed by the state government for the conservation of the lions. The force has also come out with its recommendation, including radio collaring the lions and starting a gene pool. were worried about the outcome of a petition seeking relocation of wild lions filed

Lion census from April 24, count could go beyond 400

Ahmedabad: This is going to be a census that will be closely watched by many, given the fact that it is being conducted after a period that saw poaching incidents for the first time in Gir and when neighbour Madhya Pradesh became more aggressive in its demand for a share of the Asiatic lions.

The once-in-five-years census will be carried out for four days from April 24 in a direct-sighting method which will involve nearly 1,500 staffers. Teams will be equipped with 130 cameras and they will hover around the watering holes where lions are bound to come to quench their thirst during this hot summer period. It will take at least two months before the results

are out, after careful tabulation of data and matching it with the photographic evidence.

Stray accidental deaths notwithstanding, the going has been good for the lion in its exclusive abode in Gir, with the Gujarat government promising expansion of its protected habitat and a Rs 40-crore corpus for its conservation. Sources say this time

the lion count is likely to go up to 400 from the last figure of 359 of 2005. Besides, the lion is poised to be one of the state’s biggest draws in the soon-to-be launched campaigns featuring Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan.

The Gujarat government has told the Supreme Court that there could be 400 lions in and around Gir, a clear evidence of good conservation measures. MP government, which has prepared Kuno Palpur as the lion’s second abode, had a dig at Gujarat recently in its last affidavit filed before the SC, stating that if at least 10 lions died unnaturally in Gujarat, then the state could surely afford to part with five lions. It is another matter that the gangs of poachers arrested in Gujarat have all come from MP.


Digital cameras to help count lion population

Ahmedabad: For the first time, 130-odd digital cameras will be used to count Asiatic lions over four days, as the census covering the districts of Junagadh, Amreli, Porbandar and Bhavnagar begins on April 24.

Divisional conservator of forest Sandeep Kumar told TOI that all the four districts will be divided into 28 zones. The zones will further have 100 subzonal heads who would be armed with digital cameras. The census will be conducted by direct sighting method, particularly around water bodies where lions are expected to come to quench their thirst.

Kumar said that apart from recording on paper, each subzonal head would also try and take a picture to create a unique identification bank for the lions. The parameters for identification include shape or marks on ear, nose and face, the tail, and the sides of the lion. Officials said that to prevent duplication, the photographs would also register the time and details of the camera from which they were taken.

Kumar said 450 enumerators, assisted by 900 others, would be deployed in the census. This means each team, headed by a sub-zonal chief, would have about 12 members to conduct the census by direct sighting method. A team of 56 volunteers will also accompany them to provide food or attend to any other kind of emerge

4 held with leopard skin in Sabarkantha

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Ahmedabad/Palanpur: In the first ever sting operation carried out by the forest department, an old leopard skin, probably stolen from the royal Palace of Vijaynagar, was recovered late on Wednesday night.

In a joint operation of Intelligence Bureau officials and the forest department, four members of a gang which was into animal skin trade, were arrested.

The team, disguised as customers, met the accused to strike a deal. The accused first tried to sell the leopard skin as that of tiger and the deal began as high as Rs 15 lakh. However, when the forest officials realised that it was not tiger skin, the accused immediately brought down the price to Rs 2 lakh.

While the negotiation were on, the car in which they were travelling reached a spot where another team of IB and forest department officials was waiting for them.

Anil Johri, conservator of forest, said, “We seized the leopard skin while attempts were being made to sell it.” He said that the skin appeared to be old. It could be the one reportedly stolen from the royal place of Harshvardhan Sinhji Rathore from the royal family of Vijaynagar. He said that a police complaint in this regard was also filed by the royal family.

Officials from the department said that among those arrested were Lakshman Patel, Prakash Patel, both residents of Vijaynagar, Sabarkantha, Shyamji Patel of Amreli and Deepak Parmar of Ahmedabad. The main accused, Babu Modiya of Gardi village, is on the run. Forest department and IB have launched a hunt for Babu with the police.

Officials said several more members of the gang could be apprehended once interrogation of the four is over. He said that there is also a possibility of recovering at least four more skins from the gang.

“A leopard has 18 nails while the skin we seized had no nails. It seems the gang had sold the nails each of which usually costs Rs 50,000,” said assistant conservator of forest RM Desai.

Desai said, “We are also in touch with Rajasthan forest department and unless we catch Modiya it is difficult to say anything. Those arrested have told the forest officials that Modiya had given them the skin to be sold in the market and that is all they know.”

If 10 Gir lions die annually anyway, give 5 to us: MP to SC

Himanshu Kaushik

Ahmedabad: The MP government has reportedly stated that if an average of 10 lions die unnaturally in Gir every year, then there is no harm in Gujarat government parting with five lions for its Kuno Palpur project.

The counter affidavit filed by the MP government in Supreme Court has stated that many lions die by falling into wells, getting electrocuted or by poaching. In the last three years, eight lions have died unnaturally within Gir Sanctuary. Forest officials said the MP government has assured the court that it would give full protection to the lions being brought from Gujarat, reiterating that Kuno Palpur had adequate prey base and that the lions would not die of starvation.

The affidavit was filed in response to the affidavit of the Gujarat government which had in March opposed the move to transfer the Asiatic lions from Sasan Gir. The Gujarat Government had, in the affidavit, reiterated that tigers and lions cannot stay together.

It warned that relocating the lions from the Gir Sanctuary in Gujarat was fraught with irreparable damage to the sociology of lions and asserted that MP cannot manage the relocation as it had failed to protect its own tiger sanctuary.

The Gujarat government affidavit also

stated that the lion poaching racket in Gujarat had its roots in MP. Kuno Palpur has presence of tigers in the vicinity and hence lions and tigers cannot co-exist. Officials said the government also claimed that earlier attempts to transfer lions had failed.

However, according to officials from MP, the MP affidavit is silent on the earlier attempts to transfer lions. Also, it has failed to justify whether lions and tigers can stay together. MP has been just claiming that Kuno Palpur does not have presence of tigers, added an official.

Trapped in cement slab, leopard rescued after 20 days

Rajkot: In a bizarre incident in a village in Kodinar taluka of Junagadh district, a leopard was cemented inside a concrete slab for last 20 days. It was discovered on Tuesday when it managed to break a brick. A major operation was carried out to rescue it.


According to sources, the incident was reported from Kadodara village where labourers built a wall around a leopard which had hidden in a hollow chamber on the third storey of an under-construction house. They did not know that the animal was inside.

Range forest officer (Jamwala Forest Range-Gir) LD Parmar told TOI, “The leopard was found from the house being constructed by Natu Vala, chairman of a sugar factory here. The village is about 8 km

away from Kodinar town. The supporting slab under the roof of the house was inadvertently cemented from all sides during the finishing of the bungalow 20 days ago.”

“It is a wonder that the animal was alive even after 20 days. In the morning, when a labourer was splashing water on the site, the leopard broke a brick and started growling,” he said. “We waited for night fall to rescue the big cat as it would be resting then. We built a contraption to place a cage at the height of the third floor and thus the leopard was rescued and rushed for medical checkup,’’ Parmar said.

Leopard kills girl near Khambha

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Rajkot: A girl was mauled to death by a leopard early on Monday morning at 4 am on the outskirts of Bhad village (Tulsishyam forest range) in Khambha taluka of Amreli district.

According to deputy conservator of forests (Gir east) Maniswar Raja, the incident took place in a field where the girl was asleep along with her family members outside their makeshift shanties.

“Laheri Chauhan, 8, was dragged away by the animal. In the m e a n t i m e, family members woke up and started shouting for help. They managed to scare away the beast, which dropped the girl and ran away,”Raja told TOI. Unfortunately Laheri died on the spot. Laheri’s family belongs to Rajasthan and were working in Manu Sorathiya’s farm in Bhad village. The Rajasthani family had come to earn a livelihood in the area and has been staying in huts in the open area in the farm which make them vulnerable to wild animals.

The forest department has declared compensation of Rs 1 lakh for the family. “We have placed seven cages in the area to nab the leopard. We have also urged the farmers and labourers not to sleep in the open to avoid such incidents,’’ Raja said.

116 lions have died since ’07

Gandhinagar: In another startling revelation related to Gir lions, the state government stated in the Assembly on Thursday that 116 lions had died in Gir Sanctuary between January 2007 and January 2010. Of these, 108 are said to have died in the natural course and seven were hunted to death. The sanctuary, in the last census, had reported 359 lions in the forest of which 291 were in the Gir Sanctuary, which makes the figure more alarming. Four lions died in the month of January this year alone.


Replying to a question by Congress’s Porbandar MLA, Arjun Modhwadia, the state government said that only one lion had died by falling into an open well, which had become risky for lions in the sanctuary covering 1,450 sq km.

However, former principal chief conservator of forest, GA Patel, said, “The life span of a lion is 15-18 years and if one goes by the maximum age, that is 18 years, then 20 per cent of them die every year. Besides, the survival rate of cubs was very less at 25 per cent hence the death figure of about 55-60 per year, was natural.”

A state forest department official told TOI that since the question pertained to the sanctuary, only those specific to the sanctuary were given. The official said that besides the sanctuary, lions were also found in Girnar hills, coastal areas and Bhavnagar. The last census covered all these spots and the latest is due next month.

Forest officials also said that it had increased security cover in the area, initiated new security measures, and security staff and other forest officials have been provided with sophisticated equipment for patrolling in the dense forest areas.

Govt studying lion-tiger exchange proposal: The state government also mentioned that it was studying the proposal by the Centre offering tigers in lieu of lions, for the Kuno Palpur project. Replying to Vagra MLA, Iqbal Patel, the state forest department said, the standing committee of the National Board of Wildlife had on July 17 last year, offered tigers to the state and that the government was still studying the proposal. TNN

Lion axed to death near Gir

RAJKOT: In a bizarre incident, a lion was axed to death by some villagers in the greater Gir concept area of Junagadh district on Monday. Before it was killed, the lion had attacked seven people, including three of its attackers, who were hospitalised after the incident, forest officials said.


“It appears to be an act of self-defence,” said in charge deputy conservator of forests Anita Karne of Junagadh Sasan Gir.


The lion, aged between three and five years, was first spotted near Chorvadi village, 4 km from Gir sanctuary. Deputy sarpanch Mahesh Baldaniya, 65, was attacked and injured on his leg by the lion, which then walked into a farm in Mandalpar village. On way, it reportedly attacked Chandu Chovadiya, 45, a farm labourer, Gopal Mor, 70, and a forest beat guard PD Gharsanda before it was found dead at 11am in the farm.



Karne said, “Foresters found a felled tree next to the lion’s carcass. From the wounds it appears to have been attacked by a sharp object, possibly an axe, which cut the blood stream to the brain.”



The attackers — Karim Pathan, 42, Salim, 32, and Abdullah Pathan, 45, all residents of Junagadh — are woodcutters.

“Preliminary investigation suggests that these persons — labourers hired to fell trees before monsoon — were working when the lion attacked them,” Karne said, adding that the spot falls under the revenue area and not the sanctuary. It’s not yet certain how many woodcutters were present.



In charge conservator of forests Sudhir Chaturvedi said, “This kind of a multiple attack on humans by a lion is extremely rare. It needs to be studied as to whether there was any provocation”.