Gujarat agrees lions are not ‘Gujarati’
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Daily News & Analysis
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Ahmedabad
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24 Jul 2012
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The six-year-long battle being fought in the Supreme Court over moving the Asiatic Lions to Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno Palpur Sanctuary witnessed an interesting twist on Monday. The Gujarat government agreed that wildlife is not the ‘property’ of any state but belongs to the country.
Senior counsel for the petitioner in the case, Raj Panjwani said, “This, in effect means that the state has agreed for the translocation of the lions out of Gujarat, if wildlife experts confirm that Kuno is prepared to receive the big cats. The state’s counsel said if the security and prey base measures are fulfilled, we have no objection.”
A senior forest officer from Gujarat told DNA, “The lions should be relocated scientifically. We can move them if it is affirmed that Kuno has sufficient prey base, it is secure; there shouldn’t be other pathogens, etc. We believe that the materials presented before the courts are not enough to take an informed decision on the subject.”
Panjwani added that the whole issue was whether the lions can be translocated or not. That has been resolved as \ the government’s counsel conceded that lions are not the property of the state of Gujarat. “So the question whether Gujarat can say ‘no’ to relocation is settled. It cannot. So the issue is now about when and how the lions should be moved. That is an administrative issue that can be dealt with by wildlife experts,” he said.
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