Rumble in the jungle
BHOPAL: Has the curtain finally and quietly come down on a three-decade saga – the elusive plan to bring Asiatic lions from Gujarat’s Gir sanctuary to Kuno in Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh? Likely. Lions may sit at the top of the food chain, but the rumble in the jungle suggests cheetahs have outmanoeuvred them in the Kuno conservation stakes.A July 30 forest department notification announcing renaming of the ‘Lion Project’ in MP’s Kuno National Park to ‘Cheetah Project’, and redesignation of its director to “field director, Cheetah Project, Shivpuri”, has led many to suspect that Asiatic lions won’t roar in what was supposed to be their second home in India after Gir.However, while Kuno effectively becomes the preserve of the ambitious cheetah reintroduction programme launched by PM Narendra Modi in 2022, official word on it is that the Lion Project hasn’t been scrapped.”This is procedural restructuring. No post has been abolished. Positions have been renamed for better conservation targeting,” additional chief secretary (forest) Ashok Barnwal told TOI.Another senior official who didn’t want to be named said this had been done to “ease international communication” since Kuno was now globally identified with Project Cheetah. A three-decade waitThe idea of creating a home for the Asiatic lion beyond Gujarat dates back to the 1980s, when wildlife scientists warned that Gir alone couldn’t safeguard the species. Field studies by the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India over a decade had identified Kuno as the most suitable site for relocation of lions.The Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project was then formally launched after the Supreme Court directed Gujarat in April 2013 to give away some Gir lions. The court specifically asked the Centre to establish Kuno as the endangered Asiatic lion’s other home in India.Successive state govts in Gujarat refused to allow lions to be relocated from Gir, insisting that they were safe in their original habitat and alleging that Kuno’s topography wasn’t conducive to their survival. Officials in Gujarat described Gir lions as the state’s “pride” and filed review and curative petitions, both of which were dismissed by the apex court. The reluctance, couched in ecological concerns, was widely seen as a mix of politics and prestige. The Centre maintained a stoic silence, and the project remained trapped in a maze of bureaucratic files, expert committee recommendations, and reports of periodic field visits.Cheetahs take centre stageSince the first batch of African cheetahs landed in Kuno from Namibia and South Africa in Sept 2022, the only mention of the pending plan to relocate lions to Gir was in a state govt audit last year.”Cheetahs were not part of the Kuno management plan,” states the audit report, also flagging alleged violations and incomplete documentation of Project Cheetah expenditure.According to the official management plan for the period 2020-21 to 2029-30, Kuno was to be designated a secondary habitat for Asiatic lions. “No efforts had been made towards reintroduction of lions, as of Nov 2023,” the audit report says.The audit also talks about missing reports from a three-member team appointed by SC on Jan 28, 2020. The team was required to submit four-monthly surveys and recommendations on sites for African cheetahs. “These reports were not found in the forest division’s records, preventing verification of the facts presented to the Supreme Court,” the report states.
