My Great Little Fact Folder

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The
Asia
tic Lion
With
The Runaway Lion
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Written & Illustrated by
Muriel Kakani
Sim
ed by
nd Illustrat
a
www.ecologyforchildren.com Written Kakan
i
l
Murie
Common Ancestors Continental Drift

Africa
Did you know? Once upon ia
ric
a Ind
a time lions ranged from ia

Af
Ind
Greece to India. Yehhhh!
Lions belongs not only to
Africa but Asia too.
Sounds odd ...... !!

!
?
?
?
?
Panthera leo leo
Europe Asia
There are references that As
ia Panthera leo persica
t ic l
in 327BC armies of ion
’s range The Asiatic lion is smaller
Alexander the Great got Af
greatly harassed by lions ri ca India than his African counterpart.
It is claimed that the
on their way to India. Gir Forest It has a thinner mane, a Asiatic lion is maneless
longer tail tuft, larger elbow because it is a dweller
tufts and a more prominent of thorny jungles. Its
belly fringe. mane gets combed by
During the Jurassic period, 210 million to 140 million thorns. Terrible!!!
years ago when great plant-eating dinosaurs (sauropods)
roamed the land, India and Africa were jammed together
into a giant continent called Pangaea. More than hundred
million years ago, India and Africa drifted away, both
carrying away the ancestors of today’s many animals:
elephants, big cats, gazelles... The climatic conditions
being different on the two continents caused these
creatures to evolve into different subspecies.
5
4
Hunted to Extinction
The Asiatic lion is
rated as the most
Till 150 years back, the king of the jungle roamed endangered carnivore.
throughout the plains of Northern India. Only 359 of them are
left in the wild.

The 19th century saw the

Easiness to track the
indiscriminate slaughter of
lion explains its fast
lions for trophy hunting. Lion
extinction from the
hunting was considered by
Indian Subcontinent.
British officers as the most
The lion makes for easy
aristocratic sport in India and
game as he is noisy, has
they took pride in stalking the
a fondness for the open
king of the jungle.
savannah and is overtly
active during the day.

In 1857, a British officer is

reported to have hunted 300
lions of which 50 were shot
in the district of Delhi.
In 1891, Blanford, editor of
a series of publications made
by the British government in
In the past, lions India on Indian fauna wrote
have been hunted that the lion was verging
on foot, or extinction in India.
elephant back.
In 1901, the Nawab (King) of Junagadh,
a small kingdom in Western India (Gujarat)
invited the Viceroy Lord Curzon for hunting
the king of beasts in the Gir forest. The
Viceroy refused and instead requested the
Nawab to protect the last 12 surviving Asiatic
lions of the Indian Subcontinent. The Nawab
of Junagadh then enforced a ban on hunting
in Gir. This move was the first conservation
effort to save the most endangered carnivore
of India.
The lion’s last refuge
A Maldhari ness has 6 to 7
The Gir National Park houses. The huts are built
India
in the semi-arid district with small timber, mud and
of Junagadh in Gujarat thatch. Each hut has 2 to 3
was established in 1965 Guja rooms.
to conserve the last ra
Sasan Gir
t
Asiatic lions of the
Indian Subcontinent.

The Gir forest is the

home of the Maldhari
cattle herders. Maldhari
families reside in small
hamlets called nesses.

Nearly 30% of the

lion’s food consists
of Maldhari cows.
The Gir forest is a rugged land with deep ravines, steep Lions prefer cows
rocky hills, streams, patches of dry deciduous forests, as they panic soon
thorn forests and open grasslands dotted with acacias. and run amuck.
Summers are scorchingly hot. During monsoons, heavy
rains make the forest dense and impenetrable.
Crisis in Gir
R o a d a c c i d e n t s
Gir is crossed by 5 state highways
Increasing Traffic and 1 railway line. Speeding vehicles
Gir has more than 22 passing through the Sanctuary kill
religious sites visited lions periodically.
by thousands of Agriculture
pilgrims every year. Thanks to 4 medium
dams inside Gir, the
With 70,400 tourists irrigation potential of
in a year, wildlife farmland has increased.
tourism is exerting More land is coming
pressure on shrinking under cultivation Man-animal conflicts
local resources. around the sanctuary. Lions are Attacks by lions on cattle or on
people lead to confrontation.
victims of Maldharis resort then to
poisoning, electrocuting or
setting dead traps.
Overgrazing
Increase in livestock Forest Fires
populations is leading The grass in Gir
to overgrazing.
Threats to Gir i s h i g h l y
Wildlife inflammable and O p e n w e l l s
once fire spreads With more land coming
Sanctuary it is difficult to under cultivation around
contain. the Sanctuary, the number
of blind wells (9000) is
rising, posing a threat to
the wild animals. In last
five years, about 50 lions
have fallen into wells and
Industrialisation most of them have died.
Lime stone mining Lions on the prowl often
is picking up around fall while hunting at night.
Gir.
Relocating the Asiatic lion
y for Lion Pride
Territor
needed. Shortage of
lion territories
ir Forest Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary
Contact G tor. in Gir !!??
Conserva in Madhya Pradesh
(Central India) has been
proposed for relocation of
Asiatic lions. Only fear is India is the only country
that Madhya Pradesh is in the world where both
India’s tiger state. Will lions and tigers are found.
both cats have territorial
clashes?? May be not!?
After all, historical records
show that in the past they
shared the same habitats.

I love
tigers.

With a lion population on the increase in an habitat under

threat, Wildlife Conservationists are of the opinion that
lions need to be relocated. But in a jam-packed country
like India, finding a new home for wild animals is definitely
not easy. To satisfy the increasing needs of people, forests
are being encroached and wild animals are losing their
homes.
Indian Culture and Lions
The lion is regarded as the king of animals in Indian
litetature and arts. He is the ultimate symbol of power. Lions are sacred animals
of the Hindus. Lord
Narasimha, the half-man,
Several Indian dynasties proclaimed half-lion god of the Hindu
their power by sculpting roaring lions pantheon is the 4th
to embellish buildings. incarnation of Lord Vishnu
and therefore animportant
god.

India’s national emblem is a

replica of the four seated lions
featured on Ashoka’s pillar’s
capitol at Sarnath near Varanasi
(North India).

Ashoka was the great ruler of

Ancient India (250BC) who
converted to Buddhism and
Mughal miniature took the path of peace and
paintings (16th compassion. He erected pillars
century) depict throughout his kingdom and
many scenes with inscribed them with his edicts
lions. to spread his thought. The pillar
This is the original at Sarnath marks the place where
sandstone sculpted lion Lord Buddha gave his first
capitol of Ashoka. sermon.

14 15
Must see websites!!
The Asiatic Information Centre
http://www.asiatic-lion.org/
Asiatic Lion
http://www.asiaticlion.org/
For more stories about
the endangered animals
of India, don’t forget to
visit:
www.ecologyforchildren.com