Body of another lion found close to Gir, death toll reaches 23

Junagadh: Close on heels of the death of 23 lions in Dalkhaniya range of Gir forests, the body of a very young male lion has been found in a revenue area close to the forests which are the sole abode of Asiatic lions in the world, in neighbouring Junagadh district.

DCF Gir-West Dhiraj Mittal on Monday said that the body was found from a farmland in Kalavad village under Visavadar taluka of Junagadh. 

'Prime facie the death seemed to be natural. The body of the around 2 to 3-year-old male was recovered in the afternoon of October 13 from Nilgiri farm and was sent for Postmortem in Sasan animal care center of Gir Somnath. The report is still awaited,' he said.

To a query he also said that there were no visible symptoms of Canine Distemper (CD) virus infection in the dead beast.

Notably, of the 23 lions of a single pride who died between September 12 to October 2 in Sarasiya vidi area of Dalkhaniya range, many had died to the deadly CD virus which had in 1991 wiped out 1000 or around 25% of the total population of African lions in an East African country.

Yesterday the forest team had rescued another 3 year old lion which had accidentally fallen in an open well in Devla village under Dhari taluka in Amreli district.(UNI)