283 Asiatic lions died in two years: Gujarat minister

Spread the love

[ad_1]

Gandhinagar: As many as 283 Asiatic lions have died over the last two years, the Gujarat government has told the state assembly. In response to questions in the House on Monday, forest and environment minister Kiritsinh Rana said 159 deaths were reported in 2020 and 124 in 2021.

Rana said the 283 included 68 lions, 73 lionesses, and 142 cubs. He added 29 of them died of unnatural causes, such as falling in open wells or getting hit by vehicles or trains. Rana said there were no deaths due to poaching. He added conservation and protection measures such as starting a lion ambulance and appointing vets have been undertaken.

Gujarat’s Gir National Park is the only home for lions in the wild in India.

Former principal chief conservator of forest A K Sharma said the death figures seem to be very high and added it should be a cause of concern. “…the authorities should look into the cause of so many deaths.”

Mitiyala Wildlife Sanctuary Advisory Committee member Chaitanya Joshi said the mortality rate used to be under 15% and this has shot up alarmingly in the last three or four years.

The yearly death rate among tigers in India is less than 5%. “But such comparison is not quite appropriate,” said National Board for Wildlife member H S Singh. He added there is a lot of underreporting in the case of tigers. “Also, tigers are secretive as compared to lions that move in a pride, making them easier to monitor. The latest lion mortality figures in Gujarat should not be a cause of worry as half of the deaths are among cubs. The mortality rate among cubs is very high; about 50-60%.”

In 2019, 154 lions died in Gujarat, as per data tabled in the assembly in 2021. “In 2017 and 2018, 184 lions died in Gujarat. The highest number of yearly deaths recorded before this was in 2017 when 98 lions died,” said an official, requesting anonymity.

A central team visited Gir in July 2020 to ascertain the cause of mortality among lions between January and May that year. According to a Union forest ministry report, 85 lions died in the landscape till May 31, 2020. The mortality in 2018 and 2019 was 112 and 134.

As per the 2015 census, there were 523 lions while their number in 2020 rose by 29% to 674.

Meena Venkatraman, a Mumbai-based lion expert, said more than the numbers, it must be found what exactly caused the deaths.

[ad_2]

Source link

Tags:

24 thoughts on “283 Asiatic lions died in two years: Gujarat minister

  1. When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is
    added I get several e-mails with the same comment.

    Is there any way you can remove people from that service?
    Cheers!

  2. Can I show my graceful appreciation and finally give back really good
    stuff and if you want to seriously get to hear Let me tell
    you a brief about howto make money I am always here for yall you know
    that right?

  3. Hi to all, the contents existing at this site are genuinely awesome for people knowledge, well, keep up the good work fellows.

  4. I’m extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the structure to your weblog.
    Is that this a paid subject or did you customize it yourself?
    Either way keep up the excellent quality writing, it’s uncommon to see a nice weblog like this one today..

  5. I’m not sure why but this weblog is loading extremely slow for me.

    Is anyone else having this problem or is it a problem on my end?
    I’ll check back later on and see if the problem still exists.

  6. Wow, wonderful blog layout! How long have you been blogging for?
    you made blogging look easy. The overall look of your website is magnificent, let alone the content!

  7. For hottest news you have to visit the web and on internet I found this website as a finest web site
    for newest updates.

  8. Hey, I think your site might be having browser compatibility issues.

    When I look at your blog in Chrome, it looks fine but when opening
    in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping.
    I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, excellent blog!

  9. Pingback: xo666
  10. Pingback: สีทนไฟ

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *