85 Asiatic Lions Have Died In The First Five Months In Gir Forest – Free PDF Download

DEATHS

• A host of diseases caused 44 of the 85 Asiatic Lion deaths in Gujarat’s Gir in the first five months of 2020, a government report has said.

WHAT REPORT SAYS?

• Diseases like rabies, pneumonia, urinary tract infection, anaemia, hepatitis and multiple organ failure caused half (44) of the 85 Asiatic lion deaths in the Asiatic Lion Landscape (ALL), Gujarat between January and May 2020, according to a government report.
• Since reported earlier, the draft of the report had stated that 92 lions had died between January and May 2020.
• ALL includes Gir National Park and Sanctuary and covers nine districts of Gujarat, including Junagadh, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Porbandar, Rajkot, Gir-Somnath, Botad and Jamnagar.

THE FATALITIES DUE TO DISEASES INCLUDE:

• Rabies – Caused four deaths
• Pneumonia – Two deaths
• Urinary tract infection – One death
• Anaemia – One death
• Hepatitis – One death
• Multiple organ failure – 15 deaths
• The report was prepared by a Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) appointed committee and has been accessed by Down to Earth (DTE).

INQUIRY

• The MoEF&CC had formed the committee to look into lion deaths in ALL on May 29.  It included representatives from the wildlife division of MoEF&CC, National Tiger Conservation Authority, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly and Wildlife Institute of India.
• The committee visited the region on May 30 and June 1. Its report submitted to the MoEF&CC and the Prime Minister’s Office in the first week of June, showed that in 2018 and 2019, 112 and 134 lions died in ALL.

REASONS

• The report lists reasons like “shock because of intussusceptions and respiratory failure (positive for blood protozoa)”, “shock because of respiratory and renal failure”, “shock because of septicemia due to fracture”, as the causes of death for 44 of the 85 lions that died in January-May 2020.
• Twenty-four lions died due to snake bite, electrocution and drowning in wells and 17 due to natural causes.
• Of the 85 deaths, the highest number — 59 — was reported from Gir East Division, Dhari, the division which saw an outbreak of Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) in 2018.

CDV

• Gujarat government on Thursday confirmed that a few of those big cats were found infected with canine distemper virus (CDV) and that the state forest department has imported 1,000 doses of vaccine as a precautionary measure.
• The officer said that as many as 87 Asiatic lions died due to the disease so far this year and that samples of these lions were sent to the Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre (GBRC) in Gandhinagar for viral and haemoprotozoal analysis. “A few of these samples have tested positive for CDV. But we awaiting a comprehensive report of all the samples sent to GBRC,” said the officer.

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