36 Gir lions to be back in jungle in India’s largest reintroduction op
AHMEDABAD:THE Gujarat forest department will take up the country’s biggest and most challenging effort to reintroduce big cats from captivity to the wild now that 36 Asiatic lions suspected to be infected with canine distemper virus (CDV) have been declared fit to return to their natural habitat, according to officials familiar with the development.
The scale of this operation will be larger than ever before; no more than two big cats have been needed to be reintroduced from captivity to the wild at the same time, according to experts.
Even for relocations from one wild habitat to another, the largest number at one time was six in Sariska between 2007 and 2012. “All 36 lions, housed in two groups at Jamwada and Devaliya rescue centres are fit. They will be released into the wild very soon,” Gujarat’s chief conservator of forest, Junagadh range, DT Vasavda, said. “We need to chalk out a detailed plan on how, when and where, the lions will be relocated. It will be a major exercise that will be done in phases.”
According to biologist Fayaz Khudsar, there have been no more than three or four cases of reintroduction of tigers in the wild.
Even then, in most cases, they were cubs rather than full-grown tigers, said Khudsar, who has worked in tiger habitats in Madhya Pradesh.
“The lions… would have become habitual to humans. They will have to be kept in a big enclosure to reorient them before releasing them in the wild,” explained
Rajesh Gopal, secretary general of the Global Tiger Forum, who as head of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) monitored the relocation of tigers to Sariska and Panna.
The 36 lions suspected to be infected with CDV were moved to the two care centres last October following deaths of over 25 lions over a month. It was for the first time that the Gir National Park and Sanctuary, or any other wildlife habitat in India, saw such a big breakout of CDV.
The virus that spreads from stray dogs was responsible for wiping out several hundred lions in East Africa in 1994.