The Telegraph: Sariska link in Gir lion deaths

April 8, 2007

Sariska link in Gir lion deaths

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Ahmedabad, April 7: The tiger poachers of Sariska are behind the

killings of Asiatic lions in Gir sanctuary, claimed a Gujarat CID team

that has rounded up 17 people .

Cases have been lodged against the poaching suspects, 15 of them

women, in Junagadh district in Gujarat. They were detained yesterday

during a joint search operation by the CID and forest officials.

While the CID team announced the arrests, Gujarat chief minister

Narendra Modi got into damage-control mode today, unveiling Project

Lion — a Rs 40-crore plan for conservation of Asiatic lions in Gir.

Under this project, 300 security guards as well as closed-circuit TV

cameras will watch out for incidents of poaching, officials said.

In the last six weeks, 10 lions were found dead in the Gir sanctuary,

six killed by poachers, the officials said.

Another 21 lions have died over the last five years after falling into

open wells in the 1,400-sq km sanctuary.

Project Lion is on the lines of Project Tiger, launched in 1973 to

save the other big cat. But tigers still disappeared from the Sariska

wildlife park, one of the 25 sanctuaries under Project Tiger.

The CID seized claws of lions from the 17 detained yesterday.

P.N. Roy Chaudhary, the principal secretary in the forest department,

said: " Police have found the right kind of evidence to establish that

it is the same gang of poachers that was responsible for the deaths of

tigers in Sariska and other sanctuaries. "

Roy Chaudhary said the gang has a notorious record of poaching tigers.

" The poachers (who killed the lions in Gir) are from the same group.

They are basically tribals called katnis and are renowned shikaris

(hunters). "

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