Asiatic Lions are facing an imminent danger of
extinction, if immediate steps are not taken to stop their habitat
destruction and poaching. Even today, the population of Asiatic lions in
the world is limited to the Gir forests of India. As a solution of the
problem of their deteriorating natural habitat, the Wildlife Institute
of India conducted a research to find the place that could serve as a
new home for them. After much exploration, it zeroed on the Kuno
Wildlife Sanctuary as the place where the lions of Gir could be
relocated.
This project was given the name of Kuno Project and was based in Madhya
Pradesh. As per the conservation biologists, the introduction of lions
in the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary would lead to a distribution of their
population, which is presently concentrated only in Gir. This would make
the species less susceptible to poaching and at the same time, reduce
the overcrowding of Gir. The Kuno Lion Project of India is intended to
provide Asiatic lions with the same habitat, which they used to rule
once.
Situated in the northwest of Madhya Pradesh, Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary
has been selected for the project because it resembles the natural
habitat of the lions to quite an extent. In the year 1981, an area of
approximately 344.686 sq km in Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh was
set aside to be developed into a sanctuary. Today, this area comprises
of the Kuno Wildlife Division and has an additional 900 sq km as a
buffer area.
The entire area of the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary can be divided into a
number of habitats, namely riparian habitat, savanna woodland, ravenous
habitat, plateau and evacuated agricultural fields. The sanctuary is
serving as home to tiger, leopard, wolf, wild dog, chital, samber,
chinkara, nilgai, blackbuck, four-horned antelopes, wild pig, etc. One
can also see a wide range of bird species here. As a precursor to the
relocation of the Asiatic lions, the sanctuary was made free of human
beings. Around 24 villages were rehabilitated from the sanctuary for the
purpose.
To prevent any water scarcity in the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary,
waterholes, in the form of ponds and saucers, have been created. The
other efforts taken for developing the sanctuary include the education
of the people belonging to the neighborhood communities, in order to
make them aware of the effects of living with a mega carnivore like
lion. Even after so many preparations, a number of steps are still left
to be undertaken before the lions of Gir can be effectively relocated
here.
