A new in the list of PILs seeking to address and act on the issues of wildlife conservation is the one filed by wildlife activist Biren Pandya. This time it is for the protection of Asiatic lions. With the primary concern being around their unnatural deaths, the PIL finds resonance with a similar one filed last year for elephants. But the question that one needs to ask is where are we headed with these individual PILs and suo moto cases, if all that is being done on the ground is the shooting of these animals to drive them away.
Two PILs — one filed by wildlife activist Biren Pandya and another suo moto PIL taken up by the court on its own after a report tabled in the Gujarat Assembly said that 182 lions died in Gir in the last two years, a large number of them due to unnatural causes — is now seeking to put an end to the unnatural deaths of lions in the forests of Gir, the only abode of Asiatic lions.
Spread over 1,400 sq km, the GNPS (Gir National Park and Sanctuary) and its peripheral areas cover parts of Junagadh, Amreli, Gir Somnath, Bhavnagar and Porbandar districts. The Asiatic lion population in GNPS at the end of 2015 census was put at 523.
In late 2018, the Gujarat Assembly was once again informed that close to 200 lions had died since 2017, 27 of them due to “unnatural causes”. To a query by Congress' Bhagabhai Barad, Forest Minister Ganpat Vasava, in a written reply, said 110 lions and 94 cubs died in 2017 and 2018. Of the 110 adult lions, 43 died in 2017 and 67 in 2018. 38 cubs died in 2017 and 56 in 2018, the reply said. Vasava also said that 331 leopards, including 75 cubs, died in Gujarat forests in the last two years.
The Gujarat government had attributed the unnatural deaths to road and rail accidents, wells without parapets, and electric fences around fields, in its response to the High Court, last year.
Tragically, last December, three young lions were mowed down by a goods train in Amreli, and several cases of illegal ‘lion shows’ staged for tourists were reported from the state. Efforts to radio-collar the lions to track them and keep them away from danger have yet to take off. Meanwhile, Gujarat, which has 523 lions (2015 census), has been resisting a move to shift some of them to Madhya Pradesh.
This story is from the July 2019 edition of Legal Notes.
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This story is from the July 2019 edition of Legal Notes.
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