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  Yahoo News 30 Apr 07
17 rare Asiatic lions perish in India

PlanetArk 17 Apr 07
Iron Traps, Pits Haunt India's Rare Asiatic Lions
Story by Rupam Jain Nair

Yahoo News 7 Apr 07
India steps up protection for rare Asiatic lions
By Rupam Jain Nair

Yahoo News 30 Mar 07
Three more rare lions killed by poachers in India

PlanetArk 8 Mar 07
Drowning Deaths of Indian Lions Points to Apathy

AHMEDABAD, India - Nineteen rare Asiatic lions have drowned in India after falling into wells over the past five years, further endangering an animal threatened by poachers and raising fresh concern about wildlife protection.

The news of the drownings follow the recent killing of three lions by poachers in the Gir wildlife sanctuary, their only natural habitat in the world, located in the western state of Gujarat.

Authorities are facing severe criticism for failing to protect the animals in Gir, a sprawling 1, 400 sq. km (540 sq. mile) reserve.

"Authorities have to wake up," said Gujarat-based environmentalist Ajay Rao. "India cannot afford to lose lions either by drowning or poaching."

Forest officials are trying to cover around 300 wells, some with wooden planks, to prevent drownings, said state Forest Minister Mangubhai Patel. About 8,000 people live in Gir's forests and use the wells.

The number of lions in Gir, where the animal is bred in natural conditions, rose to 359 two years ago from 327 in 2001, government data showed. But the killing and mutilation of three lions for their skulls, bones and claws -- confirmed by officials this week -- has sparked anger.

The bones are used for traditional Chinese medicine, and the claws are worn by men as pendants in the hope they would increase virility, officials say.

"The killing of more Asiatic lions in the Gir lion sanctuary is a national disgrace," the Hindustan Times said in its editorial titled: "A roaring apathy." "It highlights a deeper malaise afflicting India's wildlife parks, presided over by indifferent bureaucrats and forest officials."

India is also finding it hard to protect its tigers, whose numbers have fallen alarmingly due to poaching. There were about 40,000 tigers in India a century ago but their numbers have fallen to about 3,700 now, according to official data.

Some environmental groups say the real number could be as low as 1,200, thanks to a failure to check rampant poaching.

Yahoo News 30 Mar 07
Three more rare lions killed by poachers in India

Poachers have killed three Asiatic lions in the rare animal's only natural habitat, an Indian official said on Friday, less than a month after killing another three of the big cats.

"We are shocked. In one month six lions have been killed," said P. N. Roychoudhary, a forestry official in the western state of Gujarat.

In all six cases, claws, skulls and bones of the lions were missing when their carcasses were found at the Gir wildlife sanctuary in Gujarat. The bones are used for traditional Chinese medicine and the claws are worn by some men as pendants in the hope of increasing their virility.

The number of lions in Gir, where they are protected and bred in natural conditions, had risen to 359 in 2005 from 327 in 2001, a government census showed.

But the animals face other dangers besides poaching. Twenty-one Asiatic lions have drowned in Gujarat after falling into wells over the past five years, raising fresh concern about how authorities are protecting them.

India is also struggling to save its endangered tigers, as people invade their habitat and poachers kill them for body parts that fetch huge sums on the international black market.

Yahoo News 7 Apr 07
India steps up protection for rare Asiatic lions
By Rupam Jain Nair

Hundreds of new guards and closed-circuit TV cameras will be used to protect rare Asiatic lions threatened by poachers and villagers in their only natural habitat, Indian officials said on Saturday.

The government of the western state of Gujarat, where the Gir wildlife sanctuary is located, set up an Asiatic Lion Protection Cell after 10 lions were found dead during the last six weeks, six of them killed by poachers, they said. Another 21 lions have died over the last five years after falling into open wells in the park, raising questions about the safety of the wild animals and the conservation system in the sprawling, 1,400 sq. km (540 sq. mile) sanctuary.

"I admit lion protection has not been as water-tight as it should be and we are now going to make fundamental changes to safeguard them," P.N. Roychoudhary, a senior state forestry official, told Reuters.

More than 300 new security guards would be deployed as part of the plan, he said.

Police say poachers kill the lions to extract bones and sell them at high prices in Chinese markets. No arrests have been made so far.

The bones are used for traditional Chinese medicine and the claws are worn by some men as pendants in the belief that will increase their virility.

"It is the same network of poachers that has been targeting the Indian tigers," said one state police officer, who did not want to be identified. "Now they have shifted their focus to Asiatic lions."

According to a government census, the number of lions in Gir, where they are protected and bred in natural conditions, had risen to 359 in 2005 from 327 in 2001.

Asiatic lions -- different from African lions, with a characteristic skin fold on their bellies and thinner manes on the males -- once roamed most of Asia.

Wildlife activists say the lions are also under threat from thousands of villagers living in and around the forests and want them to be relocated to save the endangered species.

"We will have to make the sanctuary an exclusive lion zone. It is their last natural abode and India has to protect it," said conservationist R.M. Patel.

India is also struggling to save its endangered tigers, as people invade their habitat and poachers kill them for body parts that fetch huge sums in the international black market.

PlanetArk 17 Apr 07
Iron Traps, Pits Haunt India's Rare Asiatic Lions
Story by Rupam Jain Nair

GIR NATIONAL PARK, India - Indian authorities are unearthing hundreds of large iron traps and pits in the world's only natural habitat for rare Asiatic lions after a spate of killings of the big cats by poachers.

Forestry officials at Gir National Park in the western state of Gujarat say poachers have been laying traps near water sources and placing plastic nets inside pits to catch the animals, whose body parts fetch lucrative prices on the international market.

In the last seven weeks, 11 lions have been found dead -- seven of them killed by poachers. The four others drowned after falling into wells.

"All this happened around us and we failed to stop it," said Bharat Vahani, a forest guard in the sprawling 1,400 sq km (540 sq mile) park. "Some lions were stabbed in the face to prevent them from roaring and alerting guards," he added.

In recent killings by poachers, the claws, skulls and bones of the lions were missing when their carcasses were found. The bones are used for traditional Chinese medicine and the claws are worn by some men as pendants in the hope of increasing their virility.

In the mid-20th century, India had less than 15 Asiatic lions -- slightly smaller than their African cousins -- after they had been hunted to the verge of extinction.

But a breeding programme launched in Gir in the 1960s has seen numbers recover, and there were around 359 lions according to a census conducted in 2005.

Another 21 lions have died over the last five years after falling into wells in the park, raising questions about the safety of the animals and the conservation system in the sanctuary.

Forest officials are trying to cover around 300 wells, some with wooden planks, to prevent drownings. Hundreds of people live in Gir's forests and use the wells.

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE

Authorities plan to step up security in the park by installing closed-circuit television cameras, deploying hundreds of extra guards and possibly relocating villagers who are living in the forests.

But wildlife activists say it is too little too late. "Gir is the easiest target for poachers," said Belinda Wright, director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India.

The forests of Gir are home to 400 families who have eked a living from the natural resources for generations. Public buses and trains cut across the protected area and every year thousands of pilgrims enter the sanctuary to seek blessings at a hilltop temple.

"With so much human movement can we call Gir a protected area? Government has to find solutions to stop the man-animal clash," said Wright.

Conservationists say that since there are so many threats to the big cats, some lions should be moved to another sanctuary, although local government officials appear reluctant to share the animals.

"It is imperative to establish a second population to save the Asiatic lions from extinction due to epidemics and poaching," said conservationist Valmik Thapar. "It will work as a life insurance and maintain genetic diversity."

Yahoo News 30 Apr 07
17 rare Asiatic lions perish in India

India said Monday that 17 rare Asiatic lions have died since January in a protected park in western Gujarat state and unveiled a plan to shift the surviving cats to a new habitat.

"The decision to shift the lions was taken because of fears that adverse human actions or natural calamity may wipe out their whole population," India's junior forests minister Namo Narain Meena told parliament.

Meena said the surviving lions would be relocated from the Gir National Park -- the world's only natural habitat for the rare lions -- to the dense Kuno-Palpur forests in nearby Madhya Pradesh state.

"Kuno-Palpur has been recommended as the best suited alternative for the Asiatic Lions by an expert committee, which had been asked to suggest measures for their protection," Meena said in a statement.

The minister said only eight of the dead lions had been slaughtered by poachers. "The other nine lions perished due to diseases, accidents or because of natural reasons," Meena said, rejecting claims by wildlife groups that rampant poaching in Gir has left more than a dozen lions dead this year.

The number of Asiatic lions plummeted from around 1,000 a century ago to just 20 in 1913 but the creation of the Gir sanctuary after India's independence from British colonial rule in 1947 helped revive the population.

Environment and Forests Minister A. Raja, meanwhile, said New Delhi had ordered a crackdown against poachers in Gir, where a highway allows tens of thousands of pilgrims to visit a forest shrine every year.

"The government is determined to take strict action against poaching and the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau was set up with this intention," Raja said during a debate on the plight of the Asiatic lions, which became the symbol for the modern Republic of India.

Raja said the poachers were mainly outsiders, hunting in Gir for pelt, claws and body parts, which have ready markets outside India. The 1,400 square kilometre (560 square mile) sanctuary is home to 359 lions, according to the most recent census, conducted in 2005.
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