What happens when wildlife conservation projects are too successful? In an era of mass biodiversity loss, this might seem like a bizarre and perhaps even ludicrous question. Circumstances can all too easily arise, however, where even the best intentions (at least at first) can create serious problems. Such situations can quickly escalate to become crises, not least when they involve growing conflict between over six hundred endangered lions and hundreds of thousands of people in one of the world’s most heavily populated countries.
A Lion’s Share of History
The Asiatic lion, Panthera leo persica, once ranged across much of Eurasia as far west as Greece, its indelible impression stamped on the myriad cultures it has inspired and awed. Evidence for our fascination with these particular charismatic big cats is found throughout their former domain, from the mighty Nemean lion vanquished by Hercules to the ceremonial lion hunts that were integral to the reigns of the undeniably humble Assyrian ‘Kings of the Universe’1. Unfortunately, these simultaneously admired and reviled apex predators were persecuted by humans into oblivion, their range diminishing alongside our tolerance of their presence in shared landscapes.
By the turn of the 20th century, perhaps as few as a dozen individuals remained on India’s northwestern Kathiawar Peninsula, part of the modern state of Gujarat. The entire global population of Asiatic lions lived under the protection of the Nawab of Junagadh, the ruler of a princely state. The Nawab’s foresight in preventing the hunting of the unique big cats on his land was capitalised on by the newly-independent Indian goverment in 1965 when it established the world’s only sanctuary for wild Asiatic lions in their Gir Forest home. Ten years later, the sanctuary had been declared a national park and the population of lions had grown to comprise 180 individuals.
Back from the Brink
Over the intervening half-century, targeted conservation efforts have allowed the big cats to prosper, the most recent population estimate suggesting that Gir is home to 674 lions, a 29% increase on the figure from 20152. The national park is a major tourist draw for the state of Gujarat, pulling in over 100,000 annual visitors from India and beyond, all carrying the knowledge that they cannot see wild Asiatic lions anywhere else. When the tiger replaced the lion as India’s national animal in 1973, the Gujarati government immediately instated ‘its’ big cat as its state emblem, tying its presence inextricably to the regional pride of Gujarat2. Indeed, even India’s Gujarat-born Prime Minister has taken to Twitter to promote his home state’s conservation success story.
Two very good news:
Population of the majestic Asiatic Lion, living in Gujarat’s Gir Forest, is up by almost 29%.
Geographically, distribution area is up by 36%.
Kudos to the people of Gujarat and all those whose efforts have led to this excellent feat.https://t.co/vUKngxOCa7 pic.twitter.com/TEIT2424vF
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 10, 2020
Boiling Point
In his laudatory tweet, Narendra Modi unwittingly highlighted a flaw at the heart of Gujarat’s conservation strategy; its lions are on the move. Over the past 7 years alone, Gir’s lions have expanded their range well beyond the borders of their national park, their territorial nature driving younger individuals away in order escape persecution by established prides. A 1997 study suggested that the protected area could support no more than 300 lions2. It is no surprise, therefore, that almost a third of their population now resides outside the reserve.
Even within the Gir sanctuary, resident humans and lions coexist in 98% of the protected territory, the population of Gujarat having grown by 20% over the last two decades2.This has increasingly brought lions into conflict with the region’s human population, with 190 people having been attacked by lions between 2007 and 2016, 12 fatally. Furthermore, the rate at which lions prey on livestock, the lifeline for many local families living within a subsistence economy, is increasing exponentially. Government compensation efforts have been deemed woefully insufficient2.
Problems with humans aside, it is worth remembering that, in spite of their astonishing recovery over the past century, Gir’s Asiatic lions, with a population of less than 700 individuals, remain in a precarious position. Net population growth masks the deaths of 92 lions in 2020, a loss of more than a tenth of all remaining individuals3. Many of these deaths were attributed to canine distemper virus (CDV), a disease that wiped out a third of the Serengeti’s lions in 19942. The concentration of all of the world’s Asiatic lions in Gir’s 13,000km2 is surely the embodiment of the concept of having all of one’s eggs in one basket. The current conservation strategy empowers a single epidemic or catastrophic weather event to drive this unique population to extinction.
Our Lions
Although many of the problems with Gujarat’s lions have arisen from recent rapid population expansion, authorities have recognised since the 1950s that their situation is not sustainable in the long term2. In 1993, Kuno National Park was established in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh with the express purpose of relieving the population pressures on Gir. In response, the Gujarati state government hardened its stance; its forest department released material childishly disparaging the Kuno project and promoting the idea that Gujarat was entitled to its monopoly on Indian lions.
In 2013, India’s Supreme Court strongly disagreed, ordering the state government to pursue relocation of Gir lions to Kuno as a matter of priority. As of 2022, Gujarat is pressing for a ‘relocation’ of lions to Barda Wildlife Sanctuary, less than 100km from Gir and likely to be colonised by migrant lions anyway. Madhya Pradesh, meanwhile, has given up on Gujarat’s lions and reintroduced cheetahs from Namibia to Kuno instead.
References
- Ashrafian, H. (2011). “An extinct Mesopotamian lion subspecies”. Veterinary Heritage. 34 (2), pp. 47–49.
- Jhala, Y.V. et al. (2019). “Asiatic Lion: Ecology, Economics, and Politics of Conservation.”, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 7. doi:10.3389/fevo.2019.00312
- Kukreti, I. (2020). “92 lions already dead in Gir this year, report flags”, Down to Earth. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/wildlife-biodiversity/92-lions-already-dead-in-gir-this-year-report-flags-71721
The Quagga 