Lioness run over near Gir sanctuary

23/03/2016
Lioness run over near Gir sanctuary
The Hindu
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/lioness-run-over-near-gir-sanctuary/article8386287.ece
A lioness was run over by a speeding vehicle on Pipavav road, near Gir sanctuary, on Tuesday. The forest department has sent the body for post-mortem.

"It appears that the lioness was trying to cross the road," a forest official told The Hindu.

Last year, two lions were killed on the railway tracks near Rajula.

"Rajula highway sees high traffic movement because of the Pipavav port and sometimes heavy vehicles run over animals on the road," the official said.

"There are more than 174 lions in Amreli district outside the Gir national park," he said.

The State government had, in reply to a question in the Assembly recently, revealed that 310 lions including cubs had died in the Gir forest in the last five years.

Unnatural deaths

According to the State's Forest and Environment Minister Mangubhai Patel, 25 of them died an unnatural death.

According to the census conducted in 2015, the total number of lions in the State was 523, a jump from 411 in the 2010 census.