Why an increase in Gujarat’s lion population is both good and bad news

India is now home to 891 Asiatic lions, an increase of 32% since 2020.

The government of Gujarat, the only state where the animal is found in the wild, announced this finding on May 21, after the sixteenth “Lion Population Estimation”, an exercise that it conducts every five years.

The latest data shows that as a result of the government’s conservation efforts, lions have spread beyond the core population in the state’s Gir National Park – today, they are found across 11 districts of Gujarat’s Saurashtra region, including forested areas outside the national park in Gir-Somnath, Junagadh, and Porbandar districts. Amreli recorded the highest population, of an estimated 339 lions.

But while the government and conservationists have touted the news as a major success, some experts have long suggested that it is also essential for the species to establish a second independent population of lions in an area that is not contiguous with Gir, as these other forests are, to reduce the chances of the animal’s extinction in case of an epidemic.

“Any catastrophe, natural or human-mediated, can wipe out the hard-won conservation success over several decades if all surviving members of an endangered species are restricted to a single site,” said Ravi Chellam, a senior biologist who has worked with...

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