The Gujarat Forest Department has decided to rope in the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to conduct a study on possible changes in lion behaviour, among other things, after at least nine attacks by the big cat since last month in the state, leaving six dead. In response, the authorities have captured around 31 lions and relocated them, as well as declared seven as “maneaters”, which means they will remain in captivity — an alarming number for such a short period in Gujarat.
Kalubhai Parmar, 45, a maldhari or cowherd, lives in Garajiya village of Bhavnagar. The village falls in Palitana taluk known for both Jain temples and for lion sightings. But nothing had prepared Parmar for what happened on the morning of July 6.
He was feeding his cows when a lion suddenly emerged and pinned him down. Parmar first resigned himself to death, but when the lion tried to grab his neck, something came over him and the 45-year-old put his hand inside its mouth. “Had I allowed it to grab my neck, it would have killed me within a second,” he says.
One hand in the lion’s mouth, Parmar began to stroke the lion’s neck with the other. The videos of Parmar doing so made by fellow villagers would later go viral. Says Parmar: “This was my first such encounter with a lion. They had never come into the village before. I only thought that if I calm it down, it may release me. As I continued to stroke it, it opened its mouth and I pulled out my hand. Then, after we were in this position for nearly 10 minutes, with the lion sitting on my legs, it got up and I ran home.”
Escaping with two broken fingers and a gash on his neck, Parmar, who has five daughters and a son and rears six cows, says he doesn’t blame the lion. “The animal harms us only if we harass it.”
As concern grows over the lion attacks, this is what experts underline too, as do maldharis such as Parmar who refer to the animal as saavaj and have lived in close proximity with it for generations. However, as expanding human imprint makes the chances of these encounters more common, that understanding is wearing thin.
Gujarat remains the only natural habitat of Asiatic lions in the world, with the core area being the Gir forest, covering Junagadh and Gir Somnath districts in Saurashtra.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden, Gujarat, Jaipal Singh says: “The attacks seem to have happened for different reasons, some of them due to lions being harassed. But we can’t pinpoint the exact reason (behind the surge).”
While the 31 captured lions have been relocated to areas where there are no lion prides, Singh adds: “We do not release these confirmed maneaters.” He puts the number of maneaters, who are eventually put in zoos, at six or seven, adding that they want the study with the WII “to understand and guide us on this change of behaviour (of lions) and the precautions to be taken”. Singh also underlines that none of the lions shifted or declared maneater was involved in more than one attack.
A senior forest officer says what is particularly worrying is that in many cases, the maneaters have “consumed” people. “Generally, humans are not a part of a lion’s diet,” the officer says.
However, Rajkot-based Bhushan Pandya, a former member of the Gujarat State Board for Wildlife, says the designation as maneaters is “unreasonable”. “As per guidelines of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, a tiger is considered a maneater only when it repeatedly kills people and consumes them. Not if it does it once. If a lion has killed a person after the latter harassed it, such a lion should not be called a maneater. This is being done to pacify people, but it is not proper for wildlife management.”
Dushyant Vasavada, who worked as Chief Conservator of Forests (Junagadh Wildlife Circle) before his retirement, says capturing a lion can also “shatter” a pride. However, he says, the authorities have their hands tied. “A lion is captured as a precautionary measure. What if the same lion is not captured and it kills another human being? It is a process. There is no other way.”
Are lions to blame?
No, says Vasavada, putting the blame squarely on humans. “Man has gone into the area of the lion and is disturbing it. In most of the reported cases, lions were harassed. In Liliya, a youth was killed when he tried to capture mating lions on his phone. In Palitana, the lion attacked (Parmar) after it was harassed in a nearby village where it had captured a prey. In Girnar, a lion killed a boy after people flashed lights at it,” says Vasavada.
Blasting the “craze to make reels” for social media, he adds: “This is a major factor. People want to show their bravery by shooting reels, selfies, videos with lions.”
Forest Minister Arjun Modhwadia also says that in almost all the recent cases of lion attacks, the harassment was from the human side, adding that in the Liliya incident, the friends of the man killed would be investigated. The Forest Department has “zero tolerance” in such cases, he adds. “Earlier, action was taken against a person for holding ‘lion shows’ (the practice of ensuring a lion does not move away to give tourists a good sighting).”
Are there too many lions?
Vasavada dismisses this contention. “Lions have expanded their territory only when there have been favourable conditions,” he says, be it safety or food, underlining that the animal usually does not venture into populated areas.
As per the government’s five-yearly Lion Population Estimation, the number of lions in Gujarat increased from 674 in 2020 to 891 in 2025. More crucially, the core area holds just 394 of them, with 497 disbursed in satellite populations in different parts of the region.
Pandya says that here again, it is human activity that runs contrary to cohabitation. “There is an eruption of illegal hotels, leaving the Gir corridors (which the lions use to move) blocked,” he says, adding that the government should crack down on everyone violating the law. “Generally, people are fined and let go. Under the Wildlife Protection Act, they can be jailed for up to seven years,” Pandya says in the context of the ‘lion shows’.
What’s the solution
Pandya says the Forest Department should resume mobile patrolling at night to check activities like ‘lion shows’, often organised by owners of the fly-by-night hotels. He also advocates giving wider powers to forest officials. “Scientific management of Greater Gir (lion landscape outside its core area) is required.”
Bengaluru-based Wildlife Biologist and Conservation Scientist Ravi Chellam says: “You need solid research. And the research should not be restricted to the work by the Forest Department and WII. The research needs to be collaborative, ongoing and multi-dimensional. It should be not just on lions, but on prey, people, disease, habitat, impacts of tourism and socio-ecological interactions. Unfortunately, this is missing.”
Chellam adds: “One should not conduct a study only when you face a problem. That is a short-sighted and erroneous approach, especially when dealing with endangered species.”
The latest spurt of lion attacks on humans has also brought attention again to the issue of translocation of lions and creating a second population of the Asiatic lion outside Gujarat. The Supreme Court had ordered translocation of Asiatic lion back in 2013, but the Gujarat government continues to stall it.
Vasavada sides with the state on this. “How many lions will you relocate? And there is no guarantee that it will solve the issue,” he says, adding that one of the sites earlier identified as a second home for the Asiatic lion, Kuno in Madhya Pradesh, now has Cheetahs. “How can so many predators live together?”
Pandya too says relocation will not resolve the issue. “If the lions are relocated from Greater Gir to somewhere else, some other lions will take their place.”
Modhwadia says the Gujarat government is already on the job, citing Bardha, located about 15 km from Porbandar and part of the Greater Gir. “Lions have arrived there. A family of 24 is settled there… The second home for the lion has already been developed.”
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden, Gujarat, Jaipal Singh says: “The attacks seem to have happened for different reasons, some of them due to lions being harassed. But we can’t pinpoint the exact reason (behind the surge).” 
Share
