World Lion Day is celebrated every year on August 10 since 2013. It is a joint-initiative by renowned wildlife photographers Dereck and Beverly Joubert with National Geographic.
National Graphic has stated that nearly all wild lions live in sub-Saharan Africa, but one small population of Asiatic lions exists in India’s Gir Forest.
“Just over a century ago, there were more than 200,000 wild lions living in Africa. Today, there are only about 20,000; lions are extinct in 26 African countries and have vanished from over 95 percent of their historic range”, Panthera.Org had stated.
In a better turn, India recorded 29% increase in the population of Asiatic Lions living in Gujarat’s Gir Forest in the past 5 years, from 523 in 2015 to 674 in 2020.
A statement from the Chief Wildlife Warden of Gujarat State, Gandhinagar said “ In order to develop an understanding of the current population status and distribution of Asiatic Lions in the Asiatic Lion Landscape, the Gujarat Forest Department conducted an exercise familiarly called Poonam Avlokan on 05-06 June, 2020 using the Direct Beat Verification also known as the Block Count method.”
“The exercise was conducted exclusively by the forest staff of thirteen administrative divisions under the supervision from the respective administrative authorities involving a total manpower of around 1400 personnel.”
Out of the 674 lions in Gujarat, 309 are females, 206 are males, 137 are cubs and 22 are unidentified.Although these mighty creatures rule the jungle, they are threatened by poachers, trophy hunters and other human incursions.
World Lions Day aims to achieve three objectives : to increase the awareness about the issues lions face, to find solutions to protect their natural habitat and to educate people living near lion and other wild cats on how to protect themselves.
Together, Lions and Humans can live in peace but only if the latter lets it happen.
