Events & Issues

New Delhi, 6 May 2013

Gujarat Vs MP

FRESH START FOR ASIATIC LIONS

By Proloy Bagchi

Gujaratis are fuming over the recent decision of the Supreme Court to relocate a few Asiatic lions from Gir to the Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. The proposal had been pending for close to two decades and the MP Government in association with various Central and State wildlife agencies had prepared the Kuno Palpur sanctuary for their reception. A matter that is purely administrative in character and should have been decided within the Governmental framework had to go all the way up to the Supreme Court for mere mulish defiance of all scientific reasoning by the Gujarat government.

The Court’s decision is as logical as it should be but the reactions in Gujarat defy logic. It sparked protests in Junagadh and a bandh (forced stoppage of all activity – commercial or whatever) was called at Sasan, close to the Gir Park. The villagers residing within the Park have been so well brainwashed that they were reported to have said that they would part with their lions only over their dead bodies. The sense of appropriation for themselves and for Gujarat, of the rare, critically threatened species appeared to be complete as, indeed, was their instigation at the hands of the propagators of “Gujarat asmita” (Gujarat’s Identity).

True, survival and increasing numbers of the Asiatic lions in Gir is a success story worthy of being proud of. But, the lives of the lions are held together by a slender thread, acutely vulnerable as they happened to be to any mishap – an epidemic, for instance, the like of which had wiped out about 90 per cent of the Tanzanian lions during the last decade of 20th Century.

Once spread over a wide area in India and its neighbouring countries, trophy-hunting and poaching drastically reduced the numbers of Asiatic lions. Recall that a British officer had claimed to have shot as many as half a dozen lions in one outing somewhere close to Hissar, back then in Punjab, in the 19th Century. Much earlier, Mogul Emperor Akbar is reported to have hunted lions near Rewa, now in Madhya Pradesh, hundreds of kms away from Gir. Lions shared their extensive habitat in India with three other big cats – tiger, leopard and cheetah – indicating the richness of the prey-base in the forests of the country. But over the centuries and decades hunting and poaching took their toll, as also the rapid rise in population necessitating clearing of vast tracts of forests appreciably reducing their habitat.

In the process while the cheetah became extinct the three other big cats saw drastic reduction in their numbers. By the last count, tigers were around 1700 in number, surviving in a few pockets across the country and are under severe threat of extinction because of persistent poaching and indifferent management. Though the leopard seemed to have somehow survived, its count, though never methodically taken, is surely not more than in a few hundreds. Due to shrinkage of its habitat it often comes in conflict with humans in almost all corners of the country and reports of its being trapped or being mercilessly done to death by insensitive villagers or even urbanites frequently appear in the press. A project for conservation of leopards on the lines of that of the tiger is indicated if the species is to be saved and propagated in the wild.

The Asiatic lions are, however, much worse off. Having lorded over better part of the sub-continent for centuries human insensitivity drove them into a far western corner of India where the late Nawab of Junagarh, having been instrumental in wiping off most of them and faced with their precariously low numbers in the early parts of the 20th Century, had the sudden realisation that the beasts needed to be conserved. Howsoever rudimentary in nature the conservation effort was, it at least, stopped the animals’ wanton killings. Post-independence conservation efforts, mainly by creation of a sanctuary for the lions at Gir and later converting it into National Park yielded better results.

Today they are around 400-odd in number (by a Gujarat count). Though their numbers are small they are too many for the limited confines of the Park and are reported to be spilling over into neighbouring areas of Amreli district. They have also been sighted in other small settlements in Junagarh district outside the Park and even near Diu. The Park is virtually bursting at its seams, so to say, crawling with Asiatic lions as it would seem.

Having once belonged to the entire country, the lions could not be justifiably appropriated by Gujarat as its own proprietary asset and exercise exclusive rights over them. The animals surely have found succour from the State Government which has nursed and cared for them; but the entire nation too has contributed towards their protection and conservation through personnel, expertise and finances. The nation has, therefore, the right over them as also the duty to ensure that this endangered species endures and enriches the country’s wildernesses with its presence.

Appreciating its obligation in this respect, the Centre showed unusual alacrity in conducting a countrywide survey to look for a suitable site for a second home for the lions and pitched on Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary in 1993-94. It also pumped in the required finances to prepare the Sanctuary over the last two decades to enable it to host the lions. Mercifully, no mishap occurred during the intervening period or else “Gujarat asmita” would have seen the end of the species.

The orders of the apex court place onerous responsibilities on the MP government, especially the Wildlife Wing of its forest department. Its recent history and performance in recent times has not been very encouraging and the same had been argued out at the apex court by Gujarat lawyers against the proposed shifting of the lions. “Panna” still stalks them as also 12 tiger deaths in 10 months of 2012.

Reports have consistently appeared about poaching and hunting of game from the constituency of the forest minister of MP. While his tenure has been packed with controversies, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has displayed definite aversion towards wildlife when it comes to a crunch – a crunch that has political overtones. The foresters, therefore, will have to exert their utmost to ensure safety and wellbeing of the lions as their history does not quite foster faith in their commitment to the wild.  

On the other hand, Narendra Modi’s Government, is yet to come to terms with the judgement of the Supreme Court and is, quite unwisely, mulling a review petition against the apex court’s orders. One hopes better sense will eventually prevail and the judgement will be accepted for the sake of the lions. --INFA  

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)