Modi’s dilemma: Whether to shift Gir lions to MP or not

As the Gujarat chief minister in 2009, Narendra Modi had entered into a public spat with then environment minister Jairam Ramesh. The issue: Relocation of lions from Gir wildlife sanctuary state to Kuno Palpur in Madhya Pradesh.

Updated on: Jun 9, 2014, 24:21:40 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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As the Gujarat chief minister in 2009, Narendra Modi had entered into a public spat with then environment minister Jairam Ramesh. The issue: Relocation of lions from Gir wildlife sanctuary state to Kuno Palpur in Madhya Pradesh.

Modi had then opposed the relocation, saying he would not part with “Gujarat’s pride”. Now, as Prime Minister, Modi would be asked to reconsider his view in ‘larger national interest’.

Wildlife activists and the environment ministry have argued for the relocation of the Asiatic lions to MP since only a single habitat for these big cats is considered dangerous, especially because of inbreeding threat and Gir’s location in a seismic zone.

“The Prime Minister will take a call on the issue,” a senior environment ministry official said. Modi will have to decide on the matter before the next meeting of the National Board for Wildlife.

In August 2013, the Supreme Court had sided with the experts who said it was better for the lions’ future if some of them could be relocated. On the court’s directions, the environment ministry constituted a committee, which directed the MP government to expand the Kuno Palpur wildlife area for relocation of the lions.

The MP government this week submitted a proposal of Rs 79 crore for the rehabilitation of two more villages. This was the first communication from the state forest department to the ministry after the Modi-led government took charge at the Centre.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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