(IN) Asiatic Lion Update

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**Asiatic Lion Update**

 

BOOK RELEASED - " Lions of India " compiled by president of World Wide Fund for

Nature (WWF) - India, Divyabhanusinh Chavda

 

***NEWS: 1) Tracking Asiatic lions’ long trail through the ages ; 2)

‘Politics over shifting Asiatic lions detrimental’

 

Tracking lions’ long trail through the ages

Jumana Shah, DNA, Daily News & Analysis, India Monday, July 14, 2008

 

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat today is used to seeing the endangered Asiatic lions

only in the Gir forest, their last abode. But there was a time when

lions roamed all over Asia and were the crowning glory of the

continent. In a first of its kind attempt, a book that has been

published recently covers the lion's journey through centuries through

the eyes of experts of those times.

The book titled 'Lions of India' has been compiled by president of World

Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) - India, Divyabhanusinh Chavda. Released

across India last month, the book has become popular among

environmentalists and wildlife enthusiasts.

" Lions globally are

associated mainly with the African grasslands. Few people know that in

India they once roamed the plains of Haryana and Punjab, wandered as

far as in Bihar and walked the grasslands around Delhi. Not more than

10 books have been written about the Asiatic lions, while hundreds have

been written on African lions and even the tigers, " said Chavda.

He

pointed out, " The book is an attempt to put together the anthology of

lions and what the authors thought of the lions when they were alive.

The publication is a result of extensive research of the works written

by them during their times. "

The extracts in the book range

from 1884 about shikar to an analysis of the implications of politics

of 2008 for the survival of lions. Some pieces have close observation

of nature while others explain population patterns and genetic

reduction.

 

 

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1177456

 

 

‘Politics over shifting lions detrimental’

Jumuna Shah, DNA, Daily News & Analysis, India Monday, July 14, 2008

The concluding article in the book by well-known historian of

ecological change Mahesh Rangarajan takes a harsh view of the state’s

politics over the translocation of the lions to MP.

Taking

stock of developments in the past few years, Rangarajan writes that

regionalism, one of the main reasons for the lions' survival in forests

of Gir in Saurashtra, has now become a bane for it too.

" Regionalism,

once a valued ally, can also be immune to reason. Curiously, the very

regionalism that celebrates the lion is also undermining the ecology of

its survival in the long run. Although it has been scenically

demonstrated beyond argument that a second population of lions is

needed to ensure the survival of the species, the forest department of

Gujarat does not agree even in principle to discuss the modalities of

shifting lions out of the state.

Lions are a marker of

religious and regional difference. Their cause unifies but it also

divides, " Rangarajan notes. " If a second population were to be started

elsewhere in India, it would give the lions a far better chance of

survival, but in the process it would snuff out the one feature that

makes Gir unique not just in India but all over Asia.

Gujarat

would feel the absence of this singularity as a loss of face, the loss

of something that sets the place, the people and state apart. The fate

of the king of beasts hinges on the 'games men and women play', " he

writes.

 

 

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1177457

 

 

Also see:

 

Some other Asiatic Lion Books:

 

http://pets.Asiatic_Lions/message/139

 

 

 

Asiatic Lion Group Links:

http://pets.Asiatic_Lions/links/Folder_Indian___Iran_0011\

58077222/

 

http://pets.Asiatic_Lions/links

 

 

Atul Singh Nischal

 

Asiatic Lion Group

http://pets.Asiatic_Lions/