Jairam to Modi: Give some lions

Jan 28, 2011 |

Tags:

Jairam Ramesh

Jan. 27: Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Thursday pressed Gujarat to part with some of its lions, saying they should be translocated and have a second home in Madhya Pradesh. The minister, who visited Sasan Gir Sanctuary in Junagadh district, the only abode of Asiatic lions, said he is hopeful that the Narendra Modi government will agree to the proposal of having a second home for Gujarat lions in MP.

The Gujarat government has already rejected the proposal made several times before on the ground the Gir lions were the “pride” of the state. The issue of sharing Gir lions with MP is a bone of contention between the governments of Gujarat, MP and the Centre.

“You know more than 1,000 lions died due to diseases in Tanzania. Here in Gir, the lions have an inbreed population and genetic diversity of the lions here is also limited,” Mr Ramesh told reporters after a visit to the sanctuary.

“Many scientists are of the view that the lions should have a second home. I have written to the Gujarat Government to transfer some lions to MP.” “But the government here thinks lions are their pride possession,” Mr Ramesh said, adding he hopes that someday the proposal to translocate the lions will be accepted by the state government. The Gujarat government has time and again made it clear it will not share the big cats with MP. As per the last Census, the sanctuary is home to around 400 lions.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/54444" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-22174c0242ab0ed076f0d3e89bda04e1" value="form-22174c0242ab0ed076f0d3e89bda04e1" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="86281780" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>