In News
- Recently, the Project Lion document titled “Lion @ 47: Vision for Amrutkal” has been launched by the Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
More in news
- Gujarat’s Barda Wildlife Sanctuary: It has been identified as a potential second home for Asiatic lions.
- It is located near Porbandar which is 100 kilometres from the Gir National Park.
About
- Project Lion:
- It envisages landscape ecology-based conservation of the Asiatic Lion in Gujarat by integrating conservation and eco-development.
- The Project is being implemented in the Gir landscape in Gujarat which is the last home of the Asiatic lion.
- Objectives:
- To secure & restore lions’ habitats for managing its growing population.
- Scale up livelihood generation and participation of local communities.
- Become a global hub of knowledge on big cat disease diagnostics and treatment.
- Create inclusive biodiversity conservation through project lion initiative.
- Distribution:
- They are now distributed in nine districts of Junagadh, Gir Somnath, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Botad, Porbandar, Jamnagar, Rajkot and Surendranagar, covering around 30,000 square kilometres, which is termed the Asiatic Lion Landscape.
Challenges
- Vulnerable to extinction: Efforts were being made since the 1990s to find a relocation site for the Asiatic lions within Gujarat and outside the state, considering that the species is vulnerable to extinction threats from epidemics because of low genetic diversity.
- Geographic separation is the primary objective of translocation to establish a second free-ranging population of lions to mitigate conservation risks.
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About Lions
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Source: PIB