Talking Lions , Chasing Cheetahs !

 BY R.K.MISRA

What happened to the Asiatic lions for whom a second home  at Kuno Palpur was in the making for over two decades? How did a second home for the original lions transform into a cradle for ’alien’ cheetahs?

  As the country’s media went ecstatic trumping up the cheetah chapter, lost in the hype and hoopla was the fact that the prime Minister’s own state, under his own 13 year old rule as chief minister  kept dragging it’s feet to give its neighbour Madhya Pradesh  ruled  by their very own party, the promised lions .This was even after it was so ordained by the highest judicial authority in the land.

Does this imply that the second home for the lions stands effectively scuttled despite roof-top warnings that a virus had wiped out 30 per cent of the lion population in Serengeti forest of East Africa in the early nineties?. Is it that parochial considerations piloted by the powers- that- be, have taken precedence over national concerns even international wildlife imperatives? Gujarat’s  own Sasan Gir, the lone abode of the Asiatic lion in the world has also had its share of the virus scare. Twenty four asiatic lions had died in as many days ending October 15, 2018 , prompting a massive preventive operation to ensure that the infection does not spread.

It was evidence of the systemic failure of the state and its false pride in not relocating some of them to neighbouring Madhya Pradesh. The Gujarat government attributed the deaths to infighting but was subsequently forced to admit that it was caused by canine distemper and babesiosis infection. Earlier in 2007 when a lion carcass tested positive for  the highly contagious PPRV virus, two animal research institutes had suggested immediate disease surveillance. In 2011 Gujarat was again forewarned by the Centre for Animal Disease Research  and Diagnostics, Bangaluru and later by the  Indian Veterinary Research Institute of the presence of PPRV. Four lions sent to Etawah’s lion safari park died of CDV by 2016.

Based on a PIL, an apex court bench headed  by Justice Madan Lokur had on October 3,2018  questioned Gujarat and the Centre ”This is extremely serious….so many lions have died ,please act “.

The fact is that Gujarat has been dragging its feet in handing over a handful of lions to neighbouring Madhya Pradesh. Warnings by lion conservationists have been to no avail leading to devastating deaths of these prized lions in the only habitat for them in the world.

 Now for the official records. Gujarat’s Forest minister ,Ganpat Vasava, admitted in the State Assembly on March 3, 2018,that 184 lions  of the total of 523 in Gir forest had died between 2016 and 2017. The state forest department carries out a Lion Census every five years. The 2005 survey had counted 359 lions and this grew to 411 in 2010. The 2015 census found 523 lions and the 2020 census has put it at 674 terming it a 28 per cent rise in population.

Meanwhile an international study has made the alarming finding of how less the genetic diversity is among the Asiatic lions. The study by an international team of researchers has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(PNAS).”They are well known to be very inbred as the population is tiny”, Dr  Thomas Gilbert, a professor at the University of Copenhagen and a co-author of the study is on record stating. By the 20^th century only twenty lions had remained in the Kathiawar Peninsula in Gujarat.

 Lion conservationists had very early realized the dangers of an entire species being housed in a single region and advocated another geographically isolated home to protect them. After a detailed study in 1991 the Wildlife Institute of India(WII) came up with three forests of which Kuno-palpur was the first choice. In 2013 the sanctuary was finalized for the lion relocation with strong objections from Gujarat.

The Supreme Court in its April 15,2013 ,order directed the Union ministry of environment and forests to take urgent steps for reintroduction and carry out its order in ‘letter and spirit’ within six months. The International Union for Conservation of Nature also advised for a second home for the species. India’s National Wildlife Action Plan 2017-31,the official document that guides conservation of wildlife too advised ‘suitable, alternative homes for single ,isolated population of species such as Asiatic lion”.

Gujarat government, then filed  a review petition against the apex court order which was dismissed in October 2013. In February 2014,Gujarat then filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court which  was dismissed in August 2014. It mentioned the same grounds as in the previous petitions. The key points it raised was the threat of poaching and the gun culture prevalent in the region besides the issue of prey base. Now  when the cheetah is being introduced into the very same sanctuary have all these factors disappeared ?

With all judicial options exhausted the state government then took the plea of  completing a variety of studies before initiating translocation of the lions. Things continued to move at a snail’s pace. With  virtually no movement. Bhopal based environmentalist Ajay Dubey filed a contempt plea in the supreme court  against the Centre and Gujarat  for non-implementation of its 2013 order. Dubey had highlighted willful non-compliance of the apex court order and raising of technical objections. Gujarat  had ,in a letter to the technical committee  even highlighted the presence of tigers in Kuno as an obstacle. The contempt plea was discharged in March 2018. Tigers now don’t seem to be an obstacle in the case of cheetahs!

  With the PM now personally presiding over the shifting of the cheetahs into Kuno-palpur, the new home for the lions seem permanently gone. One can Lose a battle  and still win a war !

http://epaper.lokmat.com/lokmattimes/main-editions/Nagpur%20Main/2022-12-27/6

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