All's not 'well' for Gir lions

All's not 'well' for Gir lions
27 Jan 2008,
AMRELI: After big promises were made to safeguard the killer wells of Gir, an incident on Tuesday, when a two-year-old lion cub fell into one, shouts out loud for them to be fulfilled. The cub apparently tripped into an open well, which had a one-foot high wall, on the Dhari-Khambha road on the outskirts of Madhupur village. Luckily, Una forest staff saved it in time and has kept it in custody till its pride was found. It had taken eight poached lions in Gir in March-April 2007 and uproar, for the government to awaken to the cause of preserving the pride of our nation. The Tuesday incident has brought to light the potential danger some 10,000 odd open wells in and around Gir could cause to the big cats. The state government had then proposed an action plan to build parapets around the wells. Top corporate bosses attended a high-level meeting in May 2007 in which they were roped in to build these parapet walls. TOI found that though work did start, and a few wells have been barricaded, very little has happened on the ground. Kishore Kotecha of Wildlife Conservation Trust, Rajkot says, “Lack of funds is a major issue. Each barricade costs Rs 10,000, and though the government chips in Rs 4,000, we have to manage Rs 6,000 from our pockets. I could complete barricading of 109 wells as per an MOU that I had signed only with contribution of my contacts. Now, the WWF has financed 75 wells but it is not enough.” When asked of corporate participation, Kotecha said, “Several corporates did come forth but implementation is very slow. Reliance had committed 1,500, but have made only a few wells, Ambuja Cements had committed 500 and completed 120, Tata Chemicals committed about a 1,000 and have completed only 50 odd wells. The work though started with a lot of zest, is happening at a very slow pace. We expect to finish only 800 wells by March. If a company does not wish to undertake construction themselves they can always get it done by an NGO like ours.” So the score card so far is 800 of 10,000 wells covered in one year, which comes to 0.08 per cent completion rate!

Gene pools to conserve Asiatic lions

Gene pools to conserve Asiatic lions

14 Feb 2008, 0204 hrs IST, Himanshu Kaushik,

GANDHINAGAR: In a bid to strengthen its case of not shifting Gir’s Asiatic lions to Madhya Pradesh, the state government has initiated a move to create three gene pools to conserve the genetic diversity of this endangered wild cat. Pradeep Khanna, additional principal chief conservator of forest, said that creating these gene pools was a part of a long-term planning to save the Asiatic lions. One gene pool each will be formed in Rampara Virdi, about 40 km from Rajkot, in Sakkarbaugh Zoo of Junagadh and Hingolgadh in Jasdan taluka of Rajkot district. "There are two ways of conservation - one, within the environment and second, bringing the animal out of the environment and conserving the genetic diversity. The gene pool will have 10 to 20 animals per pool," said Khanna. These pools will help in conserving lions outside the protected environment. The move has also been necessitated considering the fact that if the entire population of Asiatic lions is confined to just one area, they would be highly vulnerable to any kind of biological, climactic or man-made catastrophe. A major disaster within the Gir could wipe out the entire subspecies at a stroke. Likewise, a disease outbreak could decimate the lion population. Measures are also being taken to correct a little known biological imbalance concerning the Asiatic lion. They said that around 50 wild cats would be shifted to these gene pools. This would again ease the burden on Gir sanctuary, which has around 359-odd lions. The capacity of Gir was just 250-270-odd lions and with these three gene pools, it would definitely reduce the burden. Officials said that the gene pools would also be a breeding ground for the Asiatic lions and there is a possibility that 10-12 pairs of animals would be kept in these gene pools. The Central government is already pressing hard for shifting the lions from Gir to Kuno-Palpur sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. Requesting anonymity, forest department officials said that the decision to create gene pools was taken by the department to counter Centre’s move to shift the lions from Gujarat.