Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 23:40, 18 February 2007

Work has been going on over the past decade to establish the world's second completely removed population of the wild free ranging Asiatic Lions at the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Conservationists, Scientists all over the world and the Central Government of India agree that this is an urgently needed necessary step to save the last Asiatic lions from extinction in the long run due to epidemics, Natural Disasters and Man-made Disasters that may suddenly strike what is currently their last and only population in the Gir Forest region of the Indian state of Gujarat. It is also very important to start a separate second population because not only it serves as a life insurance for the last surviving Asiatic Lions but it will also help to develop and maintain genetic diversity enabling the species survival in the future.

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

The Madhya Pradesh state government has assisted, under a Central Government sponsored scheme, in relocation and rehabilitation of about 24 small villages which chose voluntarily to move out of the remote areas of the core area of the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary. Villagers agreed readily to relocate to their new site as it gives them access to better amenities, roads and infrastructure facilities apart from schooling for their children. Samrakshan Trust, an NGO, has been working in rehabilitating villagers who agreed to move out of the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary.

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 or two of wild free ranging Asiatic Lions from Gir, "Controversy" continues to dog the Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project as the local 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 including adjoining parts of Europe where it once was found in good numbers. Today the Indian state of Gujarat is the only place on the whole planet where one can see these beautiful and majestic animals, the very last remnant of their species, living in the wild. Hence Gujarat sees these wild animals as a "tourist attraction" and a source of direct and indirect Tourism related revenue on which it obviously seems to want to maintain its monopoly hence its reluctance to allow even the reintroduction of a pride or two of wild free ranging Asiatic Lions out of its state's borders to the neighboring Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

It is hoped that the Central Government of India and the State Governments of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh can soon reach some consensus on relocating atleast 2 or 3 prides of wild free ranging Asiatic Lions from Gir Forest to Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary thus securing the long-term survival of the species and gaining it life insurance in the form of a second far removed and what will eventually be a genetically diverse population.

Are the last remaining wild Asiatic Lions highly inbred ?

The wild population of more than 300 Asiatic Lions is thought to be derived from just 13 individuals thus was widely thought to be highly inbred. Many studies have reported that the inbred populations could be susceptible to diseases and their sperms were deformed leading to infertility. In earlier studies Stephen O'Brien, a geneticist, had suggested that "If you do a DNA fingerprint, Asiatic lions actually look like identical twins... because they descend from as few as a dozen individuals that was all left at the turn of the 20th century." This makes them especially vulnerable to diseases, and causes 70 to 80% of sperms to be deformed — a ratio that can lead to infertility when lions are further inbred in captivity.

Indian Scientists have since reported that the low genetic variability may have been a feature of the original population and not a result of the 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.

Latest information from the Central Zoo Authority of India (CZA) reports "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".

The figure of 13 individual Asiatic lions, that was all left at the turn of 1900s, quoted is regarded as innaccurate by many who work with the conservation of the Asiatic lion. In 1910 there were reported to be fewer than two dozen lions left in the wild although this low figure may have been publicised to discourage lion hunting - census data from the time indicates the population was probably closer to 100.

Threats being faced by the Asiatic Lion in its single and only wild population at Gir Forest in Gujarat (India)

Even though the Gir Forest is well protected but there are incidences of Critically endangered last wild Asiatic Lion being poached and claws regularly go missing from their carcasses. Lions are also poisoned for attacking livestock. Some of the other major threats include floods, fires and the ever present lurking threat of the entire wild population of Asiatic Lions being wiped out because of epidemics and natural calamities. All the wild Asiatic Lions of the entire world are presently found only in the tiny Gir Forest, Gujarat, India. Having now grown to about 350 they need more room but there isn't any, Gir forest is boxed in on all sides with human habitation, due to the over population the Lions have started migrating out of Gir into unprotected farmland where they come in regular conflict with humans.

Over the decades hundreds of critically endangered Asiatic Lions have died, drowned and broken their bones by falling into the 10000 to 15000 open-wells dug by the farmers in and around Gir Forest. "Open wells" are now a major well documented grave threat to the last 300 odd wild Asiatic Lions found living at Gir Forest, presently their only wild home in the whole wide world. Every year the farmers dig more open wells but the State Government of Gujarat (India) has done nothing to make these illegal. There is an "urgent need" to pass a law to make open-wells illegal and farmers should be legally required to build a parapet wall around the wells and fence them in. A local NGO funded nationally or internationally can be engaged in working with the farmers and educating them to go in for "Drilled Tube wells" instead which are no threat the critically endangered last wild Asiatic Lions or other wildlife.

Farmers on the periphery of the Gir National Park frequently use illegal crude home made electrical fences to protect their crops from raiding wild animals, specially from herds of Nilgai and connect high voltage overhead power lines directly to these fences. This has on several occasions led to the electrocution of critically endangered Asiatic Lions and other wildlife.

The biggest threat faced by the Gir National Park is the presence of Maldharis. These communities are vegetarian and do not indulge in poaching because they are basically pasturalists, with an average of 50 cattle (mainly "Gir Cow") per family. So during grass-scarce seasons Maldharis, even from outside the sanctuary, bring their cattle into the park in the guise of selling them and take them away after the monsoon season. So eventually it has become grazing ground for a large number of cattle, not only of the Maldharis but also for those living in an area of say 100 km around the park. These people are legally entitled to live in the park but slowly the area around the nesses (small hamlets where Maldharis live) is becoming denuded of vegetation. The population of Maldharis, as well as their numbers of cattle, is increasing and some Maldharis have houses outside the forest but still keep their cattle inside the forest to get unlimited access to forage. One of the outcomes of this is that the natural population of the wild ungulates of the protected area which forms the prey base suffers and as mentioned earlier sometimes the critically endangered last wild Asiatic lions which have attacked livestock are ruthlessly poisoned.

Cited references

National Geographic feature
Shivaji,S. , D. Jayaprakash and Suresh B. Patil (1998) Assessment of inbreeding depression in big cats: Testosterone levels and semen analysis. Current science. 75(9):23-30
Central Zoo Authority of India (CZA), Government of India
“The Lion of India” from “The Asiatic Lion Information Centre”, the home of the European Asiatic Lion Breeding Programme

References

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