Project Lion | UPSC

• Six new sites apart from the Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary have been identified under Project Lion.
• Project Lion was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi August 15, 2020.

• Asiatic lions ; whose last remaining wild population is in Gujarat’s Asiatic Lion Landscape.(ALL)

AIM

• Landscape management with associated species will be done through veterinary care and advanced world-class research.
• The project will also be addressing the Human-Wildlife conflict which will involve local communities living in the vicinity .

IMPLEMENTATION

• The Wildlife Institute of India, along with the Gujarat Forest Department, had created a Project Lion proposal.

• Asiatic Lions have been confined to Gir National Park and its surrounding environments in Gujarat’s Saurashtra.
• The Gujarat Forest Department in June 2020 had suggested their population to be increased by 29%- 523 in 2015 to 674 in 2020.

SIX NEW SITES IDENTIFIED FOR POSSIBLE LION RELOCATION

• Madhav National Park, Madhya Pradesh
• Sitamata Wildlife Sanctuary, Rajasthan
• Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan
• Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary, Madhya Pradesh
• Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary, Rajasthan
• Jessore-Balaram Ambaji WLS and adjoining landscape, Gujarat(Mark them all today in MAP)

MISSION

• The motive behind finding a relocation site for the species is because the population in Gir has low genetic diversity, making it vulnerable to threats of extension from epidemics.
• For the first time, the entire genome of the Asiatic lion has been sequenced by scientists from CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad.

• The proposal sought to create free-ranging lion populations within Gujarat and in other states to counter this problem.

14TH LION POPULATION ESTIMATION REPORT 2015

• ALL includes Gir National Park and Sanctuary and covers eight districts of Gujarat.
• This includes Junagadh, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Porbandar, Rajkot, Gir-Somnath, Botad and Jamnagar.

• Wherein Gir acts as a ‘source’ and other satellite pockets act as ‘sinks’ and individual lions from different breeding populations can potentially disperse among these populations.

FUNDING

• Notably, in NDA’s first term, the Asiatic Lion Conservation Project was launched with a budgetary contribution of Rs. 97.85 crores from the Central government.
• The Ministry had earlier approved the project for three financial years- FY 2018-2019, FY 2019-2020, FY 2020-2021.
• Prime Minister Modi will not only entail the enhanced duration and finances but will also address all the issues required to conserve a species.

REGIONAL DISTIBUTION

• The department also informed that the distribution area of lions in Saurashtra has been increased by 36%.

• In 2015, it was 22,000 sqkm which has now gone to 30,000 sqkm.
• Experts have also been calling for the reintroduction of the species outside Gujarat for the long-term conservation of the Asiatic Lions.