Sasan Gir National Park The home of Asiatic lions.

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Most visitors to the Gir forest are greeted first by a rather impressive set of sign boards at the Vaniavaav forest check-post, 13 km from Sasan on the Junagadh-Sasan highway. These boards carry details about the Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, some nice paintings of the lion and trace its conservation history in brief. The majority of tourists to Gir travel by road from Junagadh, the district headquarters, to Sasan Gir, the park headquarters and the village in which all tourism based activities are held.

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The drive from Junagadh begins with a view of the Girnar mountains, which tower above the town in an otherwise flat landscape. Most of the land is cultivated and depending on the season, the crop is of wheat, groundnut, sugar cane or a variety of other crops. In the last 25 to 30 years, people have taken to the cultivation of mangoes and this is gradually changing the landscape. The flat terrain breaks into a series of low hills as we approach Vaniavaav. For most of the year, these hills are covered with forests dominated by species like teak, Acacia and Zizyphus.

To many people, even in India, it comes as a surprise to learn that there exists a free-ranging population of wild lions in the Gir forests, in the Saurashtra peninsula of the state of Gujarat. In fact, these lions were designated the National Animal of India till they were replaced by the tiger in the early 1970s, with the launch of Project Tiger. For most of us, information regarding wildlife comes from books, magazines and sometimes television. Images of the lion that are published and telecast are invariably from the savannah forests of east and southern Africa and seldom is the fact mentioned that Gir also is home to lions. Indeed, most of us would find it hard to believe that a forested and undulating habitat like Gir could have lions, as we are so used to seeing images of lions in flat, short grasslands with very few trees.

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The lions of Gir are special and constitute a distinct sub-species. They are the Asiatic lions (Panthera leo persica), having originated from the African lions Panthera leo leo), but long since reproductively isolated from them. The Asiatic lions once had a much wider distribution, extending from Syria through Iraq, Iran and most of Northern and Central India. The lions were fairly widespread till about 150 years ago when various human actions started to decimate their populations and drastically reduce their range of distribution. Hunting with fire, conversion of the lions habitat for human settlement and agriculture, were the major causes for the near extinction of the Asiatic lion. By the 1890s, most of the lions in India outside of the Gir forest scenario had been eliminated and the last Asiatic lions outside India were shot in the Tigris and Euphrates valley in the mid-1940s.

The lions in Gir are the only surviving wild population of the sub-species. In fact, they very nearly did go extinct with census records quoting figures as low as 20 about a 100 years ago. Fortunately, thanks to the dedication and foresight of the then Nawab of Junagadh, awareness of the need for conservation, support and compassion of the local people and since independence, the active management by the Gujarat Forest Department, the lions of Gir have made a remarkable comeback. The official population estimate based on the 1995 count is 304 lions in the Gir forest and surrounding areas. Due to their relatively low population and extremely restricted distribution, the lions are extremely endangered and given the highest level of protection by the law.

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It was around noon and the sun was really bright and hot, true to tradition in Saurashtra. We entered through the Bumbaphod check-post and drove slowly towards the Raidi area, where a lioness and three cubs were reported to have been seen. The forests were very dry, with shades of brown and grey dominating but for the occasional dash of green due to the pre-monsoon flush of leaves in some trees or the evergreen thorny bushes like Capparis and Carissa We saw many peafowl resting in the cover of thorny bushes or expansive Ficus trees. Almost all the peacocks had fully grown trains of tail feathers and were a dazzling sight as they dashed out of cover. We also observed many groups of cheetal. It was very reassuring to see almost all the deer in good condition in what was essentially the harshest period of the year. As we drove over a slight incline close to the water-hole at Raidi, we saw a lioness walking away from the road into the shade of the jamun trees. The best time for viewing wildlife are the cooler hours of the day, normally a couple of hours after sunrise and a couple of hours before sunset.

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We switched off the engine and rolled down the incline, edging towards the dry stream-bed. As we came to a halt the three cubs came into view. The lioness by now had climbed onto the of the stream and was in thick shade. Two of her cubs were lying on the gravelly stream-bed, while the third cub was close to its mother. We observed the animals from the open vehicle using our binoculars and found that the two cubs playing in the open were well-fed as indicated by their bulging stomachs. The lioness was feeding on a kill and the third cub was also tugging away at the carcass hoping to get something to feed on. Most of the meat from the prey had been eaten by the time we arrived on the scene. The lioness was steadily working on the remains to ensure that she got all that she possibly could from the carcass-after all, she had made the kill. It was very interesting to see the 10 to 12 weeks old cub wrestle with the carcass while its mother was tugging away at the other end. The cub slipped on the leaf litter as it tried its best to tear away a leg from the sub-adult cheetal doe of which they had made a meal. Soon enough, the lioness was finished with the kill and she climbed down to the stream-bed looking for a drink. The water-hole was only a muddy puddle and the lioness was unable to quench her thirst and returned to her cubs.

Lioness went to the edge of the water hole, crouched and had a long drink As she was drinking, two of her cubs also came over to drink. Having eaten and drunk to her satisfaction, the lioness retreated into the shade of the stream-bed to lie down and rest. We had been watching the lions for more than three hours by now.

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The cubs were not going to allow their mother to rest peacefully they had other ideas in mind. They squealed and mewed and clambered all over the prostrate lioness in their efforts to force her to suckle them. The lioness resisted their efforts for a while before giving in to their persistent attempts. The cubs pushed each other and the lioness in their efforts to get the best position to suckle. It was comical to see the three cubs constantly mewing and moving with their heads buried in their mother’s abdomen. Having experienced and observed much more than I would have ever hoped for, we left the lions with plenty of daylight remaining and headed for Sasan.

Overlooking the village of Sasan is the Vasador hill. From its top the view of the forest and the surrounding landscape can be quite breathtaking. As we crossed the Hiran river from Sasan village and stepped into the forest, we saw a fresh set of leopard pugmarks on the track. We then wound our way through the thorny vegetation hoping to hear a lion roar. We soon reached the riverine forests that we had planned to explore. We made our way carefully, constantly on the lookout for any evidence of a large cat.

During the hot and dry season, the riverine habitats are much favoured by lions and leopards as they are cooler and also have water which is in short supply elsewhere. The patchy and limited distribution of water attracts prey animals like cheetal, sambhar and wild pig to these densely vegetated habitats. The higher density of prey animals and the good ambush cover in these habitats makes them ideal hunting grounds for these cats. When I was on field studies, during the summer, a search of these habitats would almost always yield a lion or leopard kill.

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It did not look like we were going to be very lucky this morning. We had been walking for more than an hour and we had not seen or heard large cats or even the alarm calls of prey animals. We decided to change our route slightly and climbed out of the riverine patch into the dry thorn forest. Walking in these thorn forests dominated by Acacia nilotica can be dicey. The Acacia thorns are very long and sharp and capable of slicing through the thick sole of the boots I use for field work. As we carefully proceeded towards another water-hole called Pilipat, we heard cheetal calling in alarm. Our hopes, however, did not translate into any large cat sighting. On the moist soil around the water at Pilipat I found the huge pugmarks of an adult male lion. These pugmarks were really fresh, the lion having had a drink earlier in the morning. We decided to walk along the stream and as we picked our way on the slippery moss-covered rocks, trying our best to avoid getting our feet wet, we almost bumped into an old lioness resting on the moist stream bed and stopped barely 20m away.

This lioness had been injured and subsequently captured by the rangers and sent to Sakkarbaugh Zoo in Junagadh for treatment. After treatment, she had been ear-tagged (to enable easy identification), and released. She was in bad shape again. She still had some bruises on her head and her skin was very dull. It was obvious that she had not eaten in the last few days as evidenced by the bones sticking out in her pelvic and ribs regions. She just sat without moving, for the hour or so that we observed her.

The two lion sightings have described good examples of the cycle of life in Nature. The first illustrates birth and renewal of life, the second, death.

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Even lions have to die. It is a tough life out in the wild and old age, injuries and sickness weed out the relatively unfit animals. Gir has much more to offer than just lions, both in terms of wildlife as well as landscape and culture. For most tourists, there is only a one-point agenda—to see lions and they come with very high expectations There is so much more-other mammals like the leopard, chinkara, chousingha, Jungle cat, Small Indian civet and striped hyena; varied and abundant bird life, especially birds of prey, the maldharis, the local pastoralists who live in the forest and have to regularly deal with lions and leopards to protect their livestock, the splendid and extremely colourful sun rises and sunsets—I could continue to wax eloquent. All there for everybody to observe, experience and appreciate we just need to keep our ears, eyes and minds open.