Times of India: Junagadh: Thursday,
March 16, 2017.
The number of
Asiatic lions that have died due to unnatural causes like electrocution and
drowning in wells has shot up significantly in Saurashtra.
The damning
numbers have been revealed in official data procured using Right to Information
(RTI) tool.The data shows that of the 95 lions that died between April 2015 and
March 2016, 25 died of unnatural causes. Lion experts and wild life activists
have expressed concern over the steep increase. In the same period in
2014-2015, 13 lions had died of such causes. Moreover, these deaths have come
in the period after the lion census conducted in 2015 revealed that there 523
Asiatic lions in four districts of Saurashtra. The RTI was filed by former Army
jawan-turned-environment crusader Bhagvan Solanki of Lodhva village of
Gir-Somnath district. What is worrisome is that all the 25 unnatural deaths
happened on the fringes of Gir Wildlife Sanctuary and outside the protected
areas. This shows how vulnerable the lions are outside Gir," Army
jawan-turned-environment crusader Bhagvan Solanki of Lodhva village of Gir-Somnath
district said.
In some
cases, the exact cause of unnatural deaths could not even be ascertained as the
carcasses were completely decomposed. According to sources in the forest
department, at least 67 lions have died between April 2016 and March 2017,
which means that after the census, 170 lions have died in Saurashtra.
"The
numbers are alarming and government must immediately declare government
wasteland, vidis (government grassland) and reserve forests outside Gir
sanctuary as protected areas to save lions," said Biren Padhya, an
activist who has filed multiple PILs in Gujarat high court for forests and
lions' protection.