Gujarat: 184 lions died in two years; HC issues notice
Taking a serious note of the death of 184 lions in the state in the last two years, the Gujarat High Court on Monday sought explanations from the Union and the state governments over the disturbing trend. A division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice VM Pancholi issued notices to the state government and the Centre, returnable on March 18.
HC seeks explanation on the high number of deaths
The court issued notices to the governments, taking suo motu cognizance of the news reports on the government's March 5 disclosure to the state assembly that 184 lions died in 2016 and 2017, with 32 of them dying of "unnatural" causes. The court sought to know the reasons behind the number of deaths and the steps being taken by the authorities to prevent it.
32 lions died of unnatural causes: Gujarat government figures
As per the figures given by the Gujarat government to the assembly, 12 lions died of unnatural causes in 2016, and 20 last year. Besides, 92 carnivores died of natural causes in 2016 and 60 last year. Gujarat incidentally is the only home to lions in Asia. As per the 2015 census, there were 523 felines in the state.
Reason behind the "unnatural" deaths of the lions
The government had earlier told the assembly that there were four reasons behind the "unnatural" death of lions -- road accidents, railway tracks passing through the forest areas, wells with damaged or no parapets, and electric fences around agricultural lands.
