From Diu to Ahmedabad rural belt, why lion census may spring surprises
From the rural talukas of Ahmedabad district to the island of Diu, the containers at Pipavav Port in Amreli district to the pilgrimage town of Devbhoomi Dwarka, the Asiatic Lion census, which concluded in Gujarat on May 13, has expanded its range by 5,000 sq km from the last enumeration in 2020, when the large carnivore's spread was across 30,000 sq km.The 16th Asiatic Lion Population Estimation, carried out over four days by some 3,000 trained volunteers and regional, zonal and sub-zonal officers, added two more districts—Devbhoomi Dwarka and Jamnagar—but it's noteworthy that two talukas of Ahmedabad district, Dhandhuka and Dholka, are also likely to find a mention in this census as a few lions have been spotted there over the past five years.advertisementAhmedabad not far?A senior forest officer said a pride of lions had made Botad district, abutting Ahmedabad, their home. 'One odd lion ventured towards Dholka-Dhandhuka in 2022 but returned. As the pride expands, the lions are expected to expand their territory. It is a matter of time,' the officer noted.A lion pride's territory can typically range between 20 sq km and 500 sq km, depending on factors such as landscape, size of the pride, and availability of water and prey base.
Dholka-Dhandhuka talukas share borders with Sanand and Bavla, industrial areas attracting international investment in the automobile sector, semiconductors and lately even space technology. Dominated by farmland, industrial sheds, posh weekend homes and golf courses, these peri-urban areas surrounding the urban metropolis of Ahmedabad offer no forest cover or natural prey base for the lion.advertisementRerouting the prides The forest department's effort is to divert these prides towards the Velavadar National Park in Surendranagar district, roughly 145 km away. The park has abundant blackbucks and is a protected forest. However, Surendranagar has not been mentioned in the census exercise yet.On the other hand, lions have crossed coastal marshlands and were spotted on the beaches of Diu last year. Forest officials confirmed the Union territory's debut in the 2025 census. The presence of lions in Diu is a completely new challenge as the region lacks forest cover or prey base to organically support the carnivore.Meanwhile, on the state's north-western front, lions have reached Jamnagar district and the adjacent Devboomi Dwarka, where at least one pride is believed to have marked a few village farmlands as territory, again devoid of protected forests and prey base. In the newly conquered areas without prey base, livestock ends up as lion meal, leading to human-animal conflicts.The Saurashtra peninsula is the only place in Gujarat where the Asiatic Lion is found in the wild. The census data, which will reveal the location and numbers of lion prides, their corridors and habitat status, is expected to help shape conservation strategies and development policies for the entire region. The first such lion count in Gujarat goes back to 1936.advertisementAccording to the census in 2020, Gujarat had 674 lions, their population increasing by roughly a fourth every five years over the past three decades. This time, the rising lion numbers are expected to range between 850 and 900, spread over entire Saurashtra, also called the Greater Gir area or the Lion Landscape.A 'green list' released this March by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a global environmental entity, has placed African Lions and Asiatic Lions in the 'largely depleted' category. This means human impacts are preventing lions from being fully ecologically functional across their range.Besides, Asiatic Lions also face threats from epidemics and natural disasters, which impacts by way of their population being restricted to one landscape as well as genetic bottleneck from inbreeding.Subscribe to India Today Magazine
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