New Delhi, Feb. 11: The governments of BJP-ruled Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh on Thursday locked horns in the Supreme Court on a different issue: shifting some of the famous Asiatic lions from the Gir forest, within CM Narendra Modi’s territory, to Kuno
where his counterpart Shivraj Singh Chauhan wants to introduce them to boost their population.
After the UPA government at the Centre failed to arbitrate the dispute between the two BJP-ruled states, a Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan gave the two states four weeks to thrash out their differences.
While the Modi government has taken the stand that the survival of the Asiatic lion in Kuno sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh is very "doubtful" as it is considered "inhospitable" for the big cat and that even the tiger population there is fast "dwindling", the Chauhan administration is making every effort to ensure that it gets some lions from Gir.
Gujarat’s counsel, in a lengthy affidavit, cited various reasons for the state government’s strong opposition and apprehensions about artificial breeding of lions in Kuno. "The present project proposal for translocation of lions from Gir to Kuno is one such proposal of artificial tinkering without fully understanding the conservation success in the Gir region," Gujarat principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) B.N. Srivastava said in the affidavit.
He also questioned the Centre’s conclusions in its affidavit of January 7 that "the protected area of Gir faces great threat", claiming that the Union government’s "opinion is not based on adequate reason, rationale, scientific and factual evidence".
The Gujarat government in fact claimed that the Gir lion population has "progressively grown" due to the state administration’s conservation efforts as, according to the 2005 census, their number in the state stood between 350 and 360, while in 1880 there were only 20 lions in Gir.
The Gujarat government also "rubbished" the Centre’s argument citing the canine distemper virus (CDV) epidemic as a reason for shifting the lions, saying the virus had spread way back in 1994 and could not be a valid reason. The Modi administration alleged there was "inadequate protection" of tigers in Madhya Pradesh. "There were eight tigers at Kuno in 1992 and, as stated in the July 2009 affidavit of MP, now there is no significant population of tigers there.
S.S. Negi