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Gir
National Park attracts droves of visitors to see the
Asiatic lion in the wild, as it's the only place in the
world where these creatures are now found. Once almost
hunted to extinction, numbers have recovered well due to
conservation efforts. The park's core zone, which
extends for almost 260 square kilometers, was declared
as a national park in 1975. However, the sanctuary was
set up a decade earlier, and lion numbers have been
increasing since then. The park's forested hilly terrain
makes it a preferred habitat for the jackals, leopards,
antelope, and deer that also live there. It's home to
crocodiles, and over 300 species of resident birds as
well.
The conservation history of Gir National Park takes us
back to the early 1900s. At that time, the count of
lions had dropped down to just 15 through slaughter for
trophy hunting. When the British viceroys brought this
matter to the attention of the Nawab of Junagadh, he
ensured the protection of the park. Lord Curzon,
especially, requested the Nawab to conserve the lions.
Thus, the forest area of Gir and its lions were declared
as protected by the Nawab. A ban was also imposed on the
shooting of lions.
The Tribes of
Gir
The unique
side to Gir is that it houses the local tribals - Maldharis
- cattle grazers who live upon cattles and
milk, Sorathi Rabaris and Siddi's who look like Negros
and speak Gujarati and are believed to have come to
Gujarat in medieval times from African countries.
Earlier there were 454 Maldhari villages called "Ness"
inside the forest and now there are just 54 as the
forest department has rehabilitated the same. This was
one main reason of man-animal conflict and on the otherside, one reason for the increasing population. For
a Lion, who is relatively a lazier cat than the leopard
or tiger, it is easy to venture into a ness/village and
kill a cow or a bull rather than running stressfully
after a deer or a sambhar in the wild. The cattles have
formed key diet of the Lion as high has 70% at one point
of time and the forest department culls out as much as
Rs 150 Crs pa to reimburse the villagers. But today,
thanks to the conservation exercise of the forest
department that now there is more greenery, and hence
more deers etc - from around 4404 (1974) to 52492 (2010)
in a decade which now has become the core diet of the
Lion, thus reducing the cattle-diet to 30% from 70%. Maldharis and Lions ideally stay together and share the
same place to live- the Gir forest. This has caused
issues but there have been instances where a lion and a
Maldhari is walking together.
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