Fears for the rare Asiatic lion after fatal virus outbreak

INDIA’S top biomedical body has urged the Indian government to take immediate steps to save the endangered Asiatic lion after 23 died over the past three weeks, some due to a rare virus.

Five of the Asiatic lions, which live wild only in the Gir Forest National Park in western India, were found to have died from the contagious canine distemper virus, the Indian Council of Medical Research said. The deaths have cast a renewed spotlight on the conditions at Gir for the lions, which is home to about 600.

In 2013, India’s top court ordered the relocation of some of the lions to a separate sanctuary to protect them from disease outbreaks.

But successive local governments in Gujarat, which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, have opposed the shift, and Modi himself said the state wouldn’t part with any lions because they were “the pride of Gujarat”.

Ravi Chellam, a prominent wildlife biologist, said the Supreme Court’s order needed to be urgently implemented.

He added: “We are only waking up now when there is a crisis on our hands.”