17 rare Asiatic lions perish in India

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2007

NEW DELHI (AFP) — India said Monday that 17 rare Asiatic lions have died since January in a protected park in western Gujarat state and unveiled a plan to shift the surviving cats to a new habitat.

"The decision to shift the lions was taken because of fears that adverse human actions or natural calamity may wipe out their whole population," India's junior forests minister Namo Narain Meena told parliament.

Meena said the surviving lions would be relocated from the Gir National Park -- the world's only natural habitat for the rare lions -- to the dense Kuno-Palpur forests in nearby Madhya Pradesh state.

"Kuno-Palpur has been recommended as the best suited alternative for the Asiatic Lions by an expert committee, which had been asked to suggest measures for...