The LION'S Share

Situated outside Sasan Gir, the Aramness.resort offers an abundance of everything, from luxury to forest delights

- Amita Baviskar

No matter if you have been on umpteen safari rides, there is always a flutter of anticipation at the start of each journey. The familiar rituals—waking before dawn, bundling up in down and fleece, settling your butt comfortably on the seat of the open jeep, driving in through the park gates-prepare your mind for the magic that might come. What sightings shall we be granted? Will there be the ultimate reward of coming face-to-face with a big cat? You may tell yourself to not get your hopes up, to simply enjoy the jungle, but there it is: meeting charismatic megafauna is what most of us look forward to.

And the only place in the world where you can see one of the most endangered of these magnificent beasts is the Gir National Park. Asiatic lions that once inhabited lands from Iran to India, that as late as the 19th century could be found in Haryana and Bihar, now survive only in the forests of southern Saurashtra in Gujarat. Once the hunting preserve of the Nawab of Junagadh, this protected area now holds around 500 lions, all that remains of an animal whose image can be found in the rock paintings of Bhimbetka, on palace walls in Nineveh, and on Ashoka's pillar at Sarnath.