Bareilly (UP)

The lioness, which died in Etawah district’s ‘Lion Safari’ was suffering from deficiency of hemoglobin due to which it had stopped eating, the post-mortem report stated.

“The team which did the post-mortem found low level of hemoglobin in the lioness due to which she had stopped taking food. The intestine was found to be empty,” said Dr A K Sharma of Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), where the post-mortem was conducted.

The three-year-old lioness, ‘Tapasya’, which was brought from Gujarat on December 28 for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s pet project ‘Etawah lion safari’, died last Saturday.

Tapasya, which came along with another lioness Jessica and a lion Pataudi, was taken ill soon after arrival and was being treated by local as well as doctors from Bareilly, director of the Safari, Sanjay Srivastava had said.

Taking a serious cognisance of the incident, the Chief Minister had removed the chief forest conservator S K Upadhyaya and ordered a probe into the death by retired IAS officer V N Garg.PTI

Editor’s note: Previously the safari idea involving Gir Lions shifted from Gujarat had failed in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Both states tried to create lion safari by procuring zoo lions from Gujarat and making them free in fenced jungle area. At both places, all the lions one-by-one ultimately died. Forget about breeding which was originally aimed, they just couldn’t survive. This time again it was Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s strong wish to attempt the Lion Safari experiment again, and one lioness is dead within few days of shifting. Though lion population was across the continent once upon a time, the recent examples strongly indicate that Asiatic lions can’t survive in open outside its last habitat left in Saurashtra region of Gujarat.