The Ministry of Environment launched a three-year Asiatic Lion Conservation Project on friday in collaboration with the state of Gujarat with the aim to protect and conserve the worlds last ranging free population of Asiatic Lions. The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) allocated Rs 59 crores, which will focus on better management of the lion habitat, disease control and veterinary care for them.
Gujarat government also implemented Rs 80 crore that will be spent on specialised veterinary hospitals and full-fledged ambulances for lions.
The project, at an estimated cost of Rs 98 crore, for which the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has allocated Rs 59 crore to Gujarat’s Gir sanctuary, will span over three financial years — 2018-2019, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.
During the launch of the project, Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan handed over an amount of Rs 17 crore to Ramanlal Nanubhai Patkar, Gujarat Minister of State for Forest and Tribal Development, for the implementation of activities in the state’s Gir sanctuary during the first year of the project.
Expressing happiness about the collaboration, Patkar said currently there were about 700 lions in Gir National Park and that they are increasing in number.
Vardhan assured the Gujarat minister that this project will be a “model scheme in the times to come and would not be like a routine affair.”
