Monday, August 19, 2013

Modi ignores MP, sends 2 lions to UP

17-08-2013
Modi ignores MP, sends 2 lions to UP
INDIA TODAY.IN
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/narendra-modi-ignores-madhya-pradesh-sends-lions-to-uttar-pradesh-shivraj-chouhan/1/299960.html

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi knows how to remain in the spotlight even if it is for some very peculiar reasons. This time it's over lions. Ignoring MP's request for some lions, Gujarat has sent some lions to Uttar Pradesh to become part of Mulayam Singh Yadav's Safari Club in Etawah.

In April this year, the Supreme Court had intervened and put an end to a fight between Modi and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan over the translocation of some lions from Gujarat's Gir Forests to MP's Kuno Sanctuary.

At the time when MP had made the original request to "friendly" Gujarat, the Modi government had turned it down saying that MP had failed to protect its own tigers in Panna Sanctuary. They said that they feared that the Gir lions would face the same fate. The Chauhan government had, however, insisted that the state and the Kuno Sanctuary were equipped with all the necessary infrastructure to take care of the big cats. Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi had opposed the relocation terming Gir lions as "Gujarati pride".

Even as the two states bickered over the lions, a PIL was filed seeking the translocation of Gir lions to MP.

Eventually the Supreme Court had on April 15 ordered that some lions be translocated to MP and gave a time frame of 6 months.

However, before those 6 months get over, the Gir lions are on their way to Uttar Pradesh to become part of the Lion Safari Club in Mulayam Singh's constituency Etawah.

Sources say that the basic difference between UP and MP's requests for the lions is the use of lions. The Etawah Lion Safari Park will house Asiatic lions from across the country, including those procured from Hyderabad, in a fancy zoo. The ones translocated to MP's Kuno Sanctuary would be kept in a sanctuary where the purpose would be to preserve them and prevent them from getting extinct.

While UP had asked for 7 Gir lions, Gujarat is only sending 2 of them.

Sources say that the Gir lions are very close to Modi's heart and that he doesn't want to part with them. The government has reportedly worked very hard to preserve them and increase their population which has almost doubled since 1979
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