Gujarat revises rules for construction near Asiatic lion habitat, sparks concern

Under the revised guidelines, a district-level committee headed by the collector, along with a deputy forest officer, district development officer, and district police head, will take decisions about development projects, a significant shift from the previous provisions where requests for construction within 5 kilometres of protected areas had to be approved by the state’s chief wildlife warden or Principal Chief Conservator of Forests – Wildlife (PCCF-Wildlife).

“This amendment will be highly detrimental to the Gir Protected Area and its wildlife including Asiatic lions,” said Bhushan Pandya, a wildlife photographer and former state wildlife board committee member.

“The likely construction and anthropogenic pressure in close proximity of sanctuaries shall be highly detrimental to the flora and fauna of both Gir as well as of Greater Gir. Any new construction would block the wildlife corridors. It will increase man-animal conflicts and fragment the lion habitats, resulting in in-fights and in-breeding in lions,” he added.

Chaitanya Joshi, a member of the Mitiyala Gir Sanctuary Advisory Committee, criticised the changes, noting that “the chief wildlife warden, who is the custodian of a state’s wildlife and responsible for its well-being, has now been left with virtually no role in such a crucial matter, especially concerning Gir, one of the most important wildlife areas.”

The changes come months after the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change issued a draft notification on September 18, 2024, that proposed an integrated eco-sensitive zone around the Gir National Park, Gir, Mitiyala and Paniya Wildlife Sanctuaries.

PCCF-wildlife Jaipal Singh did not respond to phone calls for his comment. Senior forest department officials declined to comment.

Dr Jalpan Rupapara, who has researched lions in Gir for two decades, stressed that the original guidelines were court-mandated. “This GR of 2015 was carefully made considering the high habitat-destructive pressure on the eco-sensitive areas around Gir Sanctuary. It was drafted with the understanding that Gir is the sole landscape in the world for the last surviving wild population of Asiatic lions,” he said.

The 2015 notification was issued following a Gujarat high court directive that required the state government to take stringent conservation measures in the Gir region following a petition that complained about human activities affecting the habitat of Asiatic lions

Rupapara said most proposals made after the 2015 guidelines were approved within the stipulated time limits and only big projects that would have been detrimental to lions and their habitat were not getting cleared.

Last month a 25 MW solar power project proposed by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) group near the Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary was put on hold after failure to get clearance from the forest department. In the past six months, at least three large-scale solar projects have been put on hold due to such clearance issues, said an official.

Joshi said there was a contradiction between the new rules and the Centre’s Project Lion, which envisions a long-term conservation plan for the Asiatic lion under Vision 2047. “Gir needs to be preserved as a unique entity, but such decisions, which keep coming every now and then, weaken the very foundation of conservation,” he said.