It is dark. There’s no zebra crossing, but the car zooming on the Gujarat highway stops. A pride of lions, spotlighted by car headlights, is crossing the road, shows a video.
The video was shot by one of the tourists almost a week back in Gujarat’s Amreli while crossing the Dhari town as the Asiatic lions ambled across.
A coalition of 14 lions were seen crossing the Ambardi Safari Park Road in Dhari. It included four adults and 10 cubs.
The video shows two female lions leading the pack across Safari Park Road as the group marches from Dhari to Ambardi. The area is situated 40 kilometres northeast of Gir National Park, a known natural habitat of Asiatic lions.
The Bhavnagar Amreli Forest in Gujarat’s Amreli district is a reserved area for the conservation of Asiatic lions.
It is located on the eastern side of Gir National Park and will cover 1600 square kilometres after the addition of the New Jesal sanctuary.
At present, Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary is the only abode of the Asiatic lion. The last surviving population of the Asiatic lions is a compact tract of dry deciduous forest and open grassy scrublands in the southwestern part of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat.
The lions are now distributed in nine districts of the state – Junagadh, Gir Somnath, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Botad, Porbandar, Jamnagar, Rajkot and Surendranagar – covering around 30,000 square km of area, which is termed the Asiatic Lion Landscape.
Earlier this month, a pride of lions was rescued from a railway track in Amreli and narrowly avoided a collision with a train because of the alertness of forest officials. A troop of lions hunted a boar in the nearby jungles in the Amreli district and crossed a railway track to move to the other side.
Forest department officials spotted the big cats and the team swung into action to avoid a major disaster.
The timely intervention by the Shatruji forest department saved the lives of nine lions and averted any other mishap.
(With inputs from Mahendra Prasad)
