Ahmed Patel writes to PM Modi over death of 23 Gir lions in three weeks

Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ahmed Patel has written a letter to PM Modi over death of 23 lions in last three weeks in Gir National Park. 180 Gir lions have died since 2016

Ahmed Patel said in his letter, "The reasons for their deaths have not occurred overnight but are a result of the state govt's prolonged mismanagement and poor oversight."

The Congress MP also suggested certain measures to save the existing populations of lions. He said that there must be a fine balance between promoting tourism and conserving wildlife.

“There must be a fine balance between promoting tourism and conserving wildlife. The expanding dog menace and uncontrolled growth of resorts near the sanctuary has become a serious threat for the survival of the lions. The Government must show the will to end such illegal resorts irrespective of their ownership,” wrote Patel in the letter.

Ahmed Patel also asked the Central and State governments to invest in medical facilities in order to save the Gir lions.

“Both the Centre and the State must make immediate investments for better medical facilities for the lions. While on one hand, we have a thriving pharmaceutical industry and the government speaks about ‘Make in India’, on the other, forest department is forced to import vaccines from America,” said Patel.

“There is a huge shortage of both medicines and trained veterinary doctors in the national park. There is not a single intensive care ambulance for the lions at Gir. The government can consider introducing training programmes for lion conservation and allocating adequate budget for research towards their conservation,” added Patel.

Here is the letter of Ahmed Patel to PM Narendra Modi:

According to the latest census in 2015, the Gir forest region has 523 lions, 109 of which were male and 201 female, besides 140 cubs and 73 sub-adults.

There were 411 beasts in the 2010 survey and 359 in the 2005 census. The state government has, in a written reply in the state assembly, has accepted the instances of unnatural deaths of lions in Gujarat.

According to the figures provided, during the last two years, 184 lions have died in Gir, of which 32 were unnatural deaths.

With inputs from IANS.