From a dozen to 411 over a century of effort,starting with hunting bans

At the beginning of the last century,barely a dozen Asiatic lions were left in the wild,with human encroachment and hunting having shrunk their habitat

At the beginning of the last century,barely a dozen Asiatic lions were left in the wild,with human encroachment and hunting having shrunk their habitat from much of West Asia and almost the entire Indian subcontinent at one point to a small forest in Saurashtra.

This led to the first efforts to conserve the species,long before the government declared over 1,200 km in Gir a sanctuary in 1965. The Nawab of Junagadh enforced hunting bans in the decades before Independence. By 1936,there were 287 lions,and the number kept fluctuating until steady growth from 1979 onwards,by which time the population had dipped to 205. The last count was 411.

In 1975,the core area of Gir was declared a national park,and by the first decade of the current century,the government had embraced the concept of Greater Gir,which now encompasses areas in four districts. An eco-sensitive zone about five times the size of the original protected area,too,has been sought. When six lions were poached in 2007,the state government declared Rs 40 crore as funds for better protection.

Alongside all this has been a build-up in the stock of wild ungulates that serve as food for the lions,as well as other large carnivores such as leopards and hyenas. The ungulate population has increased more than six times in about half a century.

Whenever the lion population dipped between the 1930s and 1970s,it was in some part attributed to the degradation of forests due to a large population of forest-dwelling pastoralists and their grazing animals. Hundreds of families were shifted out and rehabilitated with land in the 1980s,but a Gujarat High Court enquiry last year found that most have returned to the the forests after having sold the land given. This has bolstered arguments that the forest departments conservation efforts had never been hampered by their presence,because the lion population has kept on increasing even after their return.

The forest department has since softened its stance of the pastoralists. It now calls them an integral part of the Gir ecosystem,although many senior officials have reservations,especially since the livestock population has once again reached 1970 levels and competes with a stock of 70,000-odd wild ungulates.

After a boom of visitors last year,the tourism department has praised the pastoralists for their contribution. The local Maldhari community has lived here for generations and coexists magnificently with the wilderness8230; The sizeable portion of their herds lost to lions and other predators is considered prasad,offered in exchange for living in anothers homeland.

HOW GUJARAT TRIED TO HOLD ON

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1993: Wildlife Institute of India shortlists three potential forests as Asiatic lions second home,among these Kuno Palpur.

2007: Six lions poached in Gir,36 convicted,mostly tribals from MP. Gujarat announces Rs 40-crore Project Lion. Faiyaz A Khudsar of Biodiversity Conservation Trust of India moves court. for execution of translocation project

2008: International Union for Conservation of Nature upgrades Asiatic Lion to endangered,having counted it as critically endangered since 2000. The upgrade was because the population now extends beyond the boundary of the lion sanctuary.

2009 : Forest officials reveal plans for a genetic laboratory with lions sperm,egg,cell and tissue. It would be housed at Junagadh zoo.

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2010: 10th lion census counts 411 in Greater Gir. Amitabh Bachan shoots advertisements for Khushboo Gujarat Ki campaign.

2012

February: Supreme Court rejects Gujarat claim that Asiatic lions are the states property. No state can claim the right over an animal merely because the animal is housed in a particular state8230; it belongs to the country.

March 17: Gujarat State Wildlife Board rejects translocation to MP and asserts Asiatic lions are precious asset of Saurashtra region.

March 24: Gujarat announces it has appended as an affidavit the state wildlife boards decision on first getting approval from locals.

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April 2: Gujarat argues lions should not be translocated to Kuno Palpur before African cheetahs are introduced there Lions will not allow cheetahs to survive there.

2013

February: Gujarat allots Rs 2 crore towards DNA sampling of lions captured or found dead for a database.

March 25: Assembly told 92 lions have died in 2011 and 2012. Environment Minister Govind Patel says,Though the state has been considered a home for the lion,the Centre has never included lions in its promotional material for tourism in India.