World Lion Day: The journey ahead of the Asiatic lion

Tthe only free-ranging population of the Asiatic lion survives today in the vicinity of the Gir National Park and Sanctuary. The semi-arid landscape of Giru extends into vast agricultural fields and traditional pastures, forming a checkered matrix of the landscape. Dispersing lions use these habitats as passageways, springboards, and refuges as they traverse riverbeds and mountainous terrain, eventually establishing territories far from their source populations.

Lions today inhabit habitats as ecologically diverse as the rugged Girnar Hills, the Mitiyala forests, the landscapes around Savarkundla-Liliya and the sandy coastal areas stretching across Saurashtra to the Bhavnagar coast. What is perhaps most remarkable is that at their destinations these lions are housed by local people.

As is clear, the challenge of conserving lions in Gujarat is not only to protect the Gir, but also to protect the network of habitats and corridors through which lions disperse and establish new territories. About 50 lions inhabit the coastal habitat of Jafrabad Taluka, who are connected to the larger lion population via Babarkot. Significantly, the Gujarat Forest Department’s 2025 lion population estimate identifies this coastal sector as Satellite IV, one of the nine recognized satellite lion populations in the state, while the Gir Management Plan specifically designates the Babarkot area as a lion movement corridor. Together, these official documents recognize the area as important satellite habitat and a key landscape link for lion dispersal.

A critical corridor under pressure

It is in this context that a recent proposal to divert approximately 75 hectares of reserved forest for limestone mining has raised concerns. There is concern that such a move would conflict with the long-standing legal and management framework established to protect lion habitats and movement corridors. If logging were allowed, habitat disturbance could functionally disconnect this riparian subpopulation from the larger forest-associated resource population, displacing lions from parts of their habitat.

The proposed project would reportedly require the felling of nearly 5,000 mature trees and affect a landscape that local communities themselves do not wish to see mined. Human-lion conflict could also intensify. The bigger question is whether the primary habitat of a nationally valued species, a landscape representing one of India’s greatest conservation restorations, should be sacrificed for private profit.

In the six decades since Gir Sanctuary was declared, the lion population has grown from around 100-150 individuals to a healthy population of more than 1000 today. But what is more remarkable is the fact that almost half of them now reside outside the designated protected area. Lions have shown remarkable recovery, expansion and resilience over the years, supported by a resourceful habitat and rich prey base.

An unfinished task

This success has been built on the transition from protected area management to landscape conservation, supported by political will, capable management, sustained funding and the goodwill of local communities. These were the mainstays of lion protection.

However, the entire lion population remains confined to a single forested landscape. Even more puzzling was the continued resistance to recognizing the need for a second home for lions. After years of downplaying the risk of disease in a geographically concentrated population, we experienced a shock in 2018 when more than 20 lions succumbed to an outbreak of distemper virus (CDV). The Forestry Office responded with a number of immediate measures, but have we effectively applied the lessons learned from previous outbreaks?

Mortality is just part of the natural demographic cycle. If we are to achieve long-term coexistence in shared spaces, we may have to adapt to some degree of anthropogenic mortality. Still, reports of lion deaths linked to babesiosis in May 2026, along with suggestions of possible CDV involvement, are troubling.

If disease reveals the vulnerability of a population, land use decisions reveal the vulnerability of the landscape that sustains it. These controversies raise a broader question: have the once-strong pillars of the state’s historic heritage begun to weaken? Are cracks emerging in the framework that has sustained lion protection for decades? Historically, there was little room for negotiation when it came to lions and their habitat. Indeed, Gir remains an important case study of how protected areas were gradually expanded around the original sanctuary. Hopefully, there will be no shift in the vision underlying the law, its application or administrative decision-making.

Another chapter of recovery

Given the ongoing conservation challenges of this species, any ill-advised decision could turn back the clock to a much more precarious situation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List tells an encouraging story: the Asiatic lion has moved from critically endangered to endangered. Among the subpopulations of northern lions, it is the only stable population exceeding 250 individuals and is therefore of immense global conservation importance. At the same time, more recent Green Status assessments remind us that renewal and renewal are not the same thing.

A species may recover substantially, yet remain far from full recovery across its ecological and historical range. Under green status, the lion remains largely depleted. Although the lion has recovered from the abyss, it is far from fully restored in the landscape it once occupied.

The story of the Asiatic lion is one of sustained recovery achieved over six decades of unwavering conservation efforts and the responsibility that comes with protecting those gains. Our goal is not only to celebrate this heritage, but also to maintain it.

(Meena Venkatraman, PhD, is a wildlife biologist with over twenty years of experience in mammalian ecology, with a special focus on Asiatic lions)

Published – 06 Aug 2026 08:30 IST