Gujarat forest department stops lion study by WII

AHMEDABAD: A study on lions by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), which had been going on for 14 years in the Greater Gir area, has been stopped by the Gujarat forest department, which abruptly withdrew permission without according any reasons.
Sources said that the study, ‘Metapopulation dynamics behaviour and ecological role of lions in Greater Gir landscape’ was started in 2006 under the name ‘Ecology of lion in agro-pastoral Gir Landscape’.Radio-tagging of lions took place in 2007 and the title was changed to ‘Metapopulation dynamics, behaviour and ecological role of lions in Greater Gir landscape’.
Sources said the WII received a one-line letter saying the permission had been withdrawn till further orders from the office of the principal chief conservator of forests, Shyamal Tikadar.
WII officials said the permission was withdrawn on the direction of the state government. A letter signed by joint secretary, forests and environment, Manish Shah, was sent to the office of the PCCF with a copy sent to the chief conservator of forests, Junagadh wildlife division, asking the PCCF’s office to withdraw the permission.
Officials in Union ministry of environment and forests said that in December, the WII was removed from the lion census after being granted permission to carry out the census through the camera trap method.
The study was being conducted by senior researchers Y V Jhala and Kaushik Banerjee, among others. Its objective was to study the movement of lions, man-animal conflict and conflict between leopards and lions in the Greater Gir area.
Apart from finding that lions can move as much as 100km in a night and much about their kill behaviour, the study also showed that in Greater Gir, lions are not only tolerated by humans, but humans assiduously cultivate the company of the magnificent beasts. The lions’ special place in the human scheme of things owes to their capacity to be security guards who ward off nilgai and wild boars, which can destroy fields if given a free run.