Centre’s exchange offer to Gujarat: Give Lions, take Tigers
Centre’s exchange offer to Gujarat: Give Lions, take Tigers
New Delhi, 16 February, 2010
Swap your lions for some tigers. That’s the offer that Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister for Environment and Forests, is making to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The Gir sanctuary in Gujarat is the last surviving home of the Asiatic lion — a source of pride for the State, but also a source of worry for many conservationists who feel that the lions’ habitat must be expanded.
The Centre has suggested that a group of lions be translocated to the Kuno forest reserve in Madhya Pradesh, a proposal that has been met with determined resistance from Gujarat. Now, Mr. Ramesh is hoping that the offer to bring tigers back to the Dangs forest of Gujarat, where they became extinct 25 years ago, will convince the State to offer some of its lions in return.
“If you look at the map of India, every major State has a tiger reserve except Gujarat,” Mr. Ramesh said on Tuesday. “I have written to the Gujarat Chief Minister and suggested that the National Tiger Conservation Authority will work to reintroduce tigers in Gujarat. I hope that will create the incentive for him to part with his lions,” he added.
Despite his assertion that the lions of Gujarat “continue to be a big headache for us,” Mr. Ramesh praised the Gujarat model of wildlife management. “In which other State do you have community protection for wildlife protection as you do in Gujarat?” he said. The Minister was speaking at an event to release a “Handbook on Wildlife Law Enforcement in India.”
The government plans to strengthen the penalties for poaching wildlife. By April, the Environment Ministry will introduce amendments to the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 in Parliament, making punishments exceedingly heavy, Mr. Ramesh said. “The punishments in the current act are so anaemic that you can do whatever you want…There is no reason why the wildlife offender should not be treated as harshly as the foreign exchange offender,” he said.
The amendments are also aimed at making it easier for forest researchers and biologists to conduct research in reserve areas without being “subject to the whims and fancies of individual forest officers,” he said. Mr. Ramesh warned that there was a concerted effort to reduce the populations of tigers and leopards at Corbett National Park so that the real estate mafia can take over. He added that he had rejected the Adani Group’s proposal to mine coal near the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve. “That is a closed chapter,” Mr. Ramesh said.
State against proposal to translocate lions to Kuno forest reserve in Madhya Pradesh Every major State in the country has a tiger reserve except for Gujarat: Jairam Ramesh
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I dont agree with this proposal. Lions are here for long and this is home for them. I think Mr. Modi wont agree with this proposal…
Ha Ha Ha Ha this central government doesn’t have anything better to do?
RMAESH JAIRAM, JUST SHUT UP…… IF NARENDRA MODI SAID HE DO NOT
WANT TO TRANFER LION FROM GUJARAT TO ANYWHERE.. CASE
IS CLOSED. JAIRAM RAMESH IF YOU WANT TO EXTEND LION
TERROTIRY. THEN PICK SOME PAPPER LIONS FROM CONGRESS
AND PLACE THEM IN MP ZOO. OR POSE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY AS
LION’S AND PLACE IN WILD LIFE OF MADHYA-PREDESH.
not a bad idea I guess………
i think center must give 100% money for protection Gir lion. any way center has not protect tiger in rest of india. it is nice to move some tiger to gujarat. at least those can save.
from 2004 to 2008 almost 5000 tiger has been killed. more then 3 tiger /day
no media interested in this kind of news. no any english or national channel discuss or asked center about this question.
why they don’t get any money out of tiger?
@ Dharmesh Patel….. Calm down dude and think rationally. First of all, these lions dont belong to Narendra Modi so as Gujarat. He is just the good CM perhaps we ever had. If he is not agreeing to centre’s offer there has to be a reason behind it (perhaps the worry of safety). It is also accepted by Gir authority that sanctualy is already smaller for present number of lions. Lions were reportedly used to found in MP so thre is no harm in transferring some of them as a trial. They just have to make sure that both the cats lion and tiger do get into teritorry conflict.
And by they way, wouldn;t it be a good idea to bring the tigers back in our Dang forests?
I truly believe this is a fair proposal, but I don’t know if I have fully understood it correctly.
Gujarat has around 359 Lions (as of 2006) and India has around 1400 Tigers. It would be fair to give central govt 50-60 Lions in exchange for 100-200 Tigers. As we have protected and increased numbers of Asiatic Lions, maybe we can do the same for Tigers. However, the proposal to move all Lions is absolutely unacceptable by any means. We might have accepted it if population of Lions was going down, but that is not the case in Gujarat.
Why not bring some Tigers from other south east asian countries into Dang Forests, just like Gujarat govt did for Cheetahs from Singapore, when they couldnt from Iran for technical reasons!!
Just Cant forgive this congress govt for corrupt governance and divide and rule policy for last 6 decades….otherwise india would be 25 years ahead of what it is today!!
A Must Read – To Understand the Issue
Pride of Gujarat
Anuradha Dutt
The Asiatic lion is safe and sound in Gir
Gujarat’s Gir forest today is the sole and last bastion of the Asiatic lion, with the carnivores numbers till April, 2005, based on sightings being 359. Unlike tiger conservation, the attempt to protect lions and increase their numbers is considered a success story as poaching is relatively scarce in the sanctuary. The last reported case was in April 2007, when eight lions were killed in three incidents. By contrast, in 2009, reveal sources, about 120 tiger deaths were recorded in India. Of these, at least one fourth were perpetrated by poachers. So far as poaching of lions is concerned, it is reported to have occurred in response to the great demand for derivatives such as medicines and charms from tiger bones in countries such as China. Lion bones, apparently, are passed off as tiger bones by traders in animal parts.
In the wake of the poaching episode, the Gujarat Government set up a task force to review security arrangements. This body recommended the use of high-tech gadgets such as GPS, automated sensor grid and night vision devices. The GPS-based system would facilitate surveillance, animal tracking and tracking of vehicles entering the sanctuary; and the sensors would help in classifying and locating intrusions. Night vision devices would assist mobile patrolling squads spot poachers by enhancing surveillance capability in the dark.
Gujarat’s success at conservation is especially notable because the Gir forest is the sole habitat of the king in India and the world. Its rival has 41 sanctuaries, big and small, reserved for it, under Project Tiger, which commenced in 1973 as a centrally sponsored scheme. The project was upgraded into a statutory body, National Tiger Conservation Authority, on September 4, 2006, for a period of three years. The 11th Five Year Plan allots Rs 600 crore for tiger conservation. This apart, international conservation agencies have since long been focussing on tigers and handsomely funding conservation efforts here and elsewhere. But despite the frenetic global involvement with tiger conservation, the number of the big cats, as per Minister of State for Forests and Environment Jairam Ramesh, has declined to about 1,000 from 1,411 in the last census, conducted four-five years ago.
The Gujarat Government, therefore, deserves to be commended for managing to safeguard lions and increase their population. In the early part of the last century, there were 15 or so lions. Trophy hunters, including colonial administrators and their native minions, had almost finished them off. The Nawab of Junagadh intervened and declared the forest and its environs to be protected. However, the Sasan-Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary formally came into being in 1965. The success of the Narendra Modi-headed Government’s conservation efforts can be gauged from the fact that lion numbers rose from 337 in the 2001 census to 359 in April 2005. Noted conservationist HS Panwar, former Director, Project Tiger, credits this achievement to the fact that the State Government of Gujarat is seized of the matter right from the Chief Minister to field formations of forest and police department. As for tiger conservation, he says, that if all concerned States address tiger conservation with the same seriousness, surely tiger future will be far better assured.
In September 2008, Mr Modi expressed the wish that the Centre set up a Project Lion, on the lines of Project Tiger. Senior officials of the State Forest Department were ordered by him to draft such a plan, which would be submitted to the Centre. He also demanded Central funds for the Gir sanctuary and development of its environs. Instead, a plan has been formulated by the Centre and the Madhya Pradesh Government to relocate many of the Gir lions to the 344-km Kuno-Palpur sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. Some of the reasons cited are over-crowding in Gir, and the threat of an epidemic, rendered more fearful by the supposed genetic weakness of Asiatic lions.
But the Gujarat Government has resolved to resist this move on the grounds that the conditions in Kunmo-Palpur sanctuary are not suitable for lions; and that territorial clashes between tigers and lions are bound to occur in the event of some of the Gir big cats being shifted to Madhya Pradesh. Litigation on the issue is currently underway, with the matter being heard by the Supreme Court, which wants the concerned parties Gujarat Government on one side, and the Centre and Madhya Pradesh Government on the other to resolve the issue amicably. On its part, the former is determined not to part with its lions.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/236579/Pride-of-Gujarat.html
SEE, HERE WE GO AGAIN… WE ARGUE ON EVERYTHING….
WE CAN NOT THINK WITH COOL MIND….. I DO NOT HAVE MY OPINION ON THIS ISSUE.
PLEASE LET US THINK WHAT IS GOOD FOR LIONS AND TIGERS, NOT MR. MODI OR ANYONE ELSE…. JAY SHREE KRISHNA….
The Center is welcome to relocate tigers back to Gujarat which became extinct during the Kangress govt. misrule.
Our Gujarat Home Minister is quite capable to give a corrupt-free security cover to tigers. But I feel Lions are much more safe in Gujarat than anywhere else.
The goondaraj Kangress should stop playing politics with our wildlife. For their vote-bank politics they cannot even protect our Mother cows.
Gujarat is the best lawful state for animal protection.
Jay Shree Raam!