Gujarat’s pride grows as it now hosts 674 Gir lions-THE HINDU-11-06-2020

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During 2015, the baseline was 523 lions. Moreover, the distribution of the lions expanded from 22,000 sq. As soon as the State shared the details of the census conducted on June 5-6 by over 1,400 staffers of the Forest Department, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised his home State. “Over the last several years, the lion population in Gujarat has been steadily rising.

The department had implemented strategies and interventions like community participation, use of technology, habitat management and increase in prey base, human-lion conflict mitigation and healthcare including import of vaccines after some lions were infected with Canine Distemper Virus .

This year, the department carried out a “population estimation exercise” on the night of June 5-6 because the five-yearly regular census in May could not be held due to COVID-19. In October 2018, Gir witnessed an outbreak of CDV in which 36 lions died.