The Struggle for Survival of The Last Asiatic Lions In India
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can proudly say that India is the last refuge of Asiatic Lions at the
Gir forests of Gujarat. Lions ( Panthera Leo) are majestic animals and
the males have the mane or hair on the head and back and give a
majestic appearance to them.
Lions are always fancied by all and there are many stories about
lions in Indian folklore and also in history.
Lions are always in prides, meaning they live together as a family
with a number of females and one or two males and cubs. They can run
faster and for short distances run at about 30 miles per hour and can
carry three times the weight of theirs. Only the Asiatic Lions can
really roar and their roar can be heard up to a distance of about 8
kilo meters. The roaring is to declare their territorial integrity and
claims and also to recognize each other of their family.
Indians can also be proud of another factor is that only in India both
Tigers and Lions can be seen in the wild. Both of them belong to the
cat family and the Tiger is a bigger animal than lion. The fully grown
Lion may weigh about 400 pounds and the male will be slightly bigger
than the female.
Normally a cub will be with a pride for about 2 years and then will be
driven out and will wander and search for a pride of its own by
fighting and killing other males.
The Chinese, not all, but quite a few are the main culprits for the
killing of the tigers and recently the wild life officials have found
out that lions are killed and their bones are substitutes as that of
tigers and send to china where they are used to make medicines by
Chinese as aphrodisiacs to be consumed by Chinese to raise their
sexual prowess and probably after their successful intercourse to
roar like a lion. The Gujarat Government tries its best to support the
lions in their own land. The problems are because of encroachment of
the lion's land by local people who made inroads into this land and
their cattle which roam this land. The lions naturally attack and kill
the animals and the villagers poison these lions. Roads built into
this forest area make more vehicular movements and animals killed by
the careless drivers. And the heartless, selfish poachers killing the
animals are contributing to their dwindling numbers.
In additions the government's support for the tribals and concessions
in the form of digging up many wells in the forest are has made many
lions to die in these wells.
Recently a programme to relocate the great Asiatic lions to an
environmentally protective location in Madya Pradesh has failed
because the Gujarat government has not allowed this relocation since
they did not want the Gir forest's lions movement and treated it as a
prestige issue rather than for the protection of the lions.
Many Indians who are busy only to think and act about their own
personal chores do not know that the last survivors of the Gir forests
are dying slowly and a time will come when the children will know of
the lions from the text books only.
These lions are the proud possessions of every single Indian and
should be protected. After independence there were very few lions in
gir but the then government and the provincial kings took interest and
gave protection for the lions to grow and proliferate in these
forests. Now the reverse is happening and many a lion has died both
because of natural and man made reasons.