Villagers, forest guides, tour operators, hoteliers and all sections of people in Gir forest area observed a bandh on Thursday in protest against the Supreme Court’s order to shift some Asiatic lions to Madhya Pradesh.
Sources in Gir in Junagadh district, the last natural habitat of Asiatic lions, said that the sanctuary areas as well as neighbouring villages were completely shut down during the day to lodge their protest against the proposal to translocate the lions.
The Gypsy operators, who take the tourists on conducted tours through the rough terrains for showing lions in the wild, took out a rally in the area and pledged not to allow the shifting of lions out of their last natural habitat in Gir.
The protesters later gathered at the Mamlatdar office at the taluka headquarter in Talala and handed over a memorandum urging him to intervene in preventing the move to shift the lions to Madhya Pradesh where, they feared, the big cats would not be safe.
The memorandum, copies of which were faxed also to the District Collector, Forest Minister and Chief Minister, said that the Asiatic lions would be at the mercy of poachers in the Madhya Pradesh which has a history of such offences against wildlife.
The villagers demanded to know as to what happened to the 11 lions which were shifted to Madhya Pradesh some three decades back. The memorandum also reminded the authorities about the
gang of poachers from Madhya Pradesh which had few
years back killed half a dozen lions in Gir to take away their claws and nails.