3 min readMumbaiNov 27, 2024 11:00 AM IST
First published on: Nov 27, 2024 at 10:54 AM IST
In a major push to promote lion safari at Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) in Borivali, the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) on Tuesday cleared the forest department’s proposal to procure two lions from Gujarat’s Sakkarbaug Zoological Gardens as part of an exchange programme.
These lions will be released in the SGNP’s Safari arena which is a major attraction for visitors.
The addition of these two new lions will take the total lion population in SGNP to four. In exchange of these lions, the SGNP administration will be giving two tiger cubs to Sakkarbaug Zoo administration.
The proposal for acquiring these two lions was sent to the CZA earlier on March 2024. This will also be the second time in two years that SGNP will be acquiring lions from the Sakkarbaug Zoo. Prior to this, in November 2022, the SGNP administration had got two lions from the Sakkarbaug Zoo by exchanging two tigers. The age of lions at the time of procurement were three years.
When these lions were brought at SGNP, there was only one surviving lion–Jespa at the park, which died due to old age within a few days after the new lions arrived.
“Since the lion safari is part of SGNP now, there is a need to have more lions inside the park. Considering this, we had requested the government of Gujarat to give us two lions under an exchange programme, following which a proposal was sent to CZA which got approved today,” Dr V Clement Ben, additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) told The Indian Express on Tuesday.
Clement said the two lions that will be brought to SGNP are cubs approximately one year old. The tiger cubs that will be exchanged also belong to the same age group. The tiger population in SGNP excluding the two cubs stands at six at present.
“The lions will arrive within 15 days. At first a team comprising a veterinary doctor and a wildlife officer will visit Sakkarbaug to identify and medically inspect the animals. Later they will be brought to Mumbai,” added Ben.
After the lions are brought to Mumbai, they will be initially kept in an isolation zone, after which they will be introduced in the captive safari zone.
The SGNP has a 12-hectare land that has been earmarked for lion’s territory. Starting from 1975, there used to be lion safari inside the park regularly, which became a main revenue generator for the park as well. Those lions were mainly hybrid offspring of Asiatic and African lions born in the circuses.
However, after the formation of CZA in 1992, breeding of hybrid animals was prohibited in the zoo and the population of lions started to decline in SGNP.
As part of the safari, visitors are taken inside lion’s territory in a mini-van.
The addition of these two new lions will take the total lion population in SGNP to four. (File Image) 
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