A day after a farmer was allegedly attacked by a lioness in Kodiya village of Khambha taluka in Amreli, forest guards and a rescue team were deployed on Sunday on the agricultural field of the farmer as a precautionary measure. Chandu Vala (32), the farmer of the Kodiya village was allegedly attacked by a lioness at around 1:30 pm while he was working in lemon orchard belonging to his uncle Lakha Vala. However, his cousin brothers working in the adjoining vegetable field raised the alarm and scared away the lioness. "Chandu and my other cousin brother Vaju were to go Surat in the afternoon and therefore they were harvesting some lemons for our relatives. There were some journalists also. All of a sudden, a lioness came out of the orchard and attacked Chandu. He sustained injuries on his back and posterior," Chadu's cousin brother Khodu Vala said on Sunday. Injured Chandu was first rushed to a hospital in Khambha and from there he was referred to Amreli. He was discharged late on Saturday evening itself. After the incident, forest department deployed four guards and an animal rescue team on Vala's field on Sunday. "The journalists were shooting the lioness and some people went too close to her. Therefore, she attacked Vala. He sustained minor injures and has now been discharged from hospital. We have deployed four guards and a rescue team as a precautionary measure so that farmer can work on his field and any emergency situation can be dealt with. But no lion has been spotted in the orchard today," Tulsishyam range forest officer (RFO) Dinesh Zala told The Indian Express. [related-post] Vala's orchard is located near Kodiya Reserve Forest. The RF is part of Tulsishyam range in Gir East division. Incidentally, some vernacular dailies had reported last week on the "consistent" presence of lions in the lemon orchard for the last three months and the farmers not being able to harvest lemon.However, forest officials say the agricultural field is located in a lion corridor. "The farm falls along a lion corridor and pride of five members has been seen in the area. Being a corridor, lion presence is recorded there frequently but the pride has not settled in the orchard as such," said the RFO. The attack comes around a week after a teenager boy of an agricultural labourer was mauled by lions in Ambardi village of Dhari taluka in Gir East forest on May 20. After that attack, 16 lions have been rescued by forest department. But forest officers said encaging the lioness suspected to have attacked the Kodiya farmer was not required. "Such an attack does not warrant caging a lion. But we have deployed guard there and they will remain posted there as long as require. We are also ready to help other farmers who are facing similar problem," added Zala.
