Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project

The Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project is an effort to save the Asiatic lion from extinction in the wild. The last wild population in the Gir Forest region of the Indian state of Gujarat is threatened by epidemics, natural disasters and anthropogenic factors. The project aims to establish a second independent population of Asiatic Lions at the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

Wildlife Institute of India researchers confirmed that the Palpur-Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary is the most promising location to re-establish a free ranging population of the Asiatic lions and certified it ready to receive its first batch of translocated lions from Gir Wildlife Sanctuary where they are highly overpopulated. There are large scale deaths in the population annually because of ever increasing competition between the human and animal overcrowding. Asiatic lion prides require large territories but there is limited space at Gir wildlife sanctuary, which is boxed in on all sides by heavy human habitation.

Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary was selected as the reintroduction site for critically endangered Asiatic lion because it is in the former range of the lions before it was hunted into extinction in about 1873. It was selected following stringent international criteria and internationally accepted requirements & guidelines developed by IUCN/SSC Reintroduction Specialist Group and IUCN/SSC Conservation Breeding Specialist Group which are followed before any reintroduction attempt anywhere in the world.

Twenty four villages of the Sahariya tribe, which had lived in the remote core area set aside for the reintroduction of the Asiatic lions in Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, were moved out of the Sanctuary to prepare it for receiving a lion population. They were rehabilitated to a new location on the edge of the Kuno sanctuary by incurring an expense equal to millions of dollars under a Central Government of India sponsored scheme. The plan included expenses on infrastructure development, so that they can have access to basic amenities like roads, schools and a hospital. Samrakshan Trust, an NGO, has been working for better rehabilitation of villagers who agreed to move out of the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary.

The resettled villages were allocated housing and agricultural land at Village Agraa outside the sanctuary. The stated purpose of this move was to create a safe home and an inviolate space for the translocated prides of critically endangered Indian lions. However, major gaps remained in the implementation of these measures The economic impact of their displacement from Kuno sanctuary has been very adverse for the villagers, according to independent research, making this a controversial case of species preservation via dislocation of human populations living inside Protected Areas.

Establishing the wildlife sanctuary

Asiatic Lion

Asiatic Lioness, named MOTI, at Bristol Zoo, England (1996).

The plan is to reintroduce a pride or two of wild, free-ranging Asiatic Lions from Gir Forest in the neighboring Indian state of Gujarat to start with. Even though recent studies have shown that Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary is ready to receive its first pride of lions from Gir, controversy continues to shroud the project as the state government of Gujarat, from where the Lions are to come from, is reluctant to let go of them as it considers Asiatic Lions a state property and wants to keep its monopoly over the tourism revenue generated by the species which is extinct everywhere else in the world (i.e. over its entire original range in South West Asia ( The Middle East and Near East) including adjoining parts of Europe (The Balkans and Greece) where it once was found in good numbers). Hence Gujarat sees the lions as a "tourist attraction" and a source of direct and indirect tourism-related revenue.

Proponents of the plan hope that the central government of India and the state governments of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh can soon reach some consensus on relocating at least two or three lion prides from Gir Forest to Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary, thus securing the long-term survival of the species and produce, eventually, a more genetically-diverse population.

The Gir Forest in the State of Gujarat, India is the last natural habitat of the approximately 350 wild Asiatic Lions, though plans are afoot to re-introduce some to Palpur-Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in the neighboring State of Madhya Pradesh in India to ensure their longterm survival against epidemics and natural calamities.

Inbreeding

The wild population of more than 300 Asiatic Lions has been said to be derived from just 13 individuals, and thus was widely thought to be highly inbred. However, this low figure, quoted from 1910, may have been publicised to discourage lion hunting; census data from the time indicates the population was probably closer to 100.

Scientists from India have since reported that the low genetic variability may have been a feature of the original population, and not a result of inbreeding. They also show that the variability in immunotypes is close to that of the tiger population and that there are no spermatazoal abnormalities in the current population of lions.

Recent information from the Central Zoo Authority of India (CZA) reports that "the Asiatic lions and Indian tigers are not as inbred as previously reported by S.J. O' Brien and do not suffer from inbreeding depression".

See also

• Reintroduction
• in-situ conservation
• List of Protected areas in India
• Wildlife conservation
• World Conservation Union (IUCN)
• Ex-situ conservation
• Extinction
• National Emblem of India

External links

• “Asiatic Lion Information Centre” (and also referred to its "NEWS pages" for controversy over Gujarat’s reluctance in Reintroduction of Asiatic Lions outside its state's borders to Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India)
• Information on Asiatic Lion & Gir Forest at the website of Asiatic Lion Protection Society (ALPS)
• AAj Tak Video News Repot in Hindi available on Youtube: Gir lions in palpur kuno century report rajesh badal.mp4 by Rajesh Badal uploaded on Feb 14, 2011