Gandhinagar, Feb 13 (PTI) More than Rs 277 crore were spent on lion conservation in the Gir and Greater Gir areas, the abode of Asiatic lions, in the last two years, the Gujarat government informed the legislative assembly on Tuesday.
Minister of State for Forest and Environment Mukesh Patel said the Centre has approved a National Wildlife Disease Diagnostic and Referral Centre at Junagadh under ‘Project Lion’, launched to conserve big cats in 2020.
The state government has spent Rs 277.93 crore on lion conservation in 2022 and 2023, the minister said, responding to questions by Congress MLAs during the Question Hour of the ongoing budget session of the assembly here.
During this period, 238 lions, including cubs, died in different parts of Gujarat. Of these, 209 lions succumbed to natural causes, while 29 deaths were due to unnatural reasons such as big cats getting hit by vehicles or falling into open wells, he said in a written reply.
“To provide timely treatment to lions in case of an outbreak of diseases or accidents, we have appointed veterinarians and deployed four ambulances in forest areas. Apart from establishing centres to treat wild animals at different spots, the forest department has also deployed rapid action teams to rescue animals that are in distress,” Patel said.
As for measures to prevent unnatural deaths, the government is building speed-breakers on roads that pass through sanctuary areas, night patrolling in forests, constructing parapet walls for open wells near forests, putting up fences on both sides of the railway track near Gir Wildlife Sanctuary and radio-collaring Asiatic lions to track their movement, he said.
The minister also informed the House that a ‘National Wildlife Disease Diagnostic and Referral Centre’ will come up in Junagadh, near Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, to treat ailing and injured lions.
According to a senior official, the state government has already selected a 50-acre land near Junagadh city to establish the medical facility, which is coming up as part of the Centre’s ‘Project Lion’.
The facility, the first ever in Gujarat, will work as a wildlife hospital and a centre to research diseases among animals, he said.
As per the last census conducted in June 2020, Gujarat is home to 674 Asiatic lions. PTI PJT PD ARU
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