Gujarat’s lion boom: How human-lion coexistence is turning into a conservation test

Dubai: India’s Forest Department last month released the country’s first lion population estimate since 2020.

The results were dramatic: Asiatic lion numbers have surged 32 per cent in five years to 891. The census revealed 497 lions across nine satellite populations and 394 in Gir itself.

This growth reflects decades of protection. The creation of Gir National Park and Sanctuary in 1965 provided a safe haven, while a ban on lion hunting a century ago saved the species from extinction.

Today, lions occupy 11 districts, stretching their range to 35,000 square kilometres — a 75 per cent increase since 2010, the census report said.

“They will continue to expand as long as there is food and cover,” wildlife biologist Yadvendradev Jhala was quoted as saying.

Food is plentiful: Lions scavenge carcasses, prey on feral cattle, and hunt livestock. And when livestock is taken, villagers are compensated at near-market value, a policy Jhala calls “critical for continued coexistence.”

Yet rising numbers have consequences. Almost half of Gujarat’s lions now live outside protected forests.

Encounters with people are inevitable, and not all end peacefully. Over the past five years, lions have killed more than 20 people and nearly doubled their attacks on cattle.

A recent incident in Amreli district shocked the state: A lion dragged five-year-old Pulsing Ajnera away from his family’s farm. His relatives tried to save him, throwing stones and sticks at the animal, but it disappeared into the jungle with the child. His body was recovered hours later.

Pulsing was one of seven people in India killed by lions in the year to June 2025, taking the total number of fatal attacks in five years to more than 20. Attacks on cattle have almost doubled during the same period, Gujarat officials told CNN.

“It’s not easy to live with a large carnivore,” Jhala says. Villagers must change routines — keeping children indoors at night, clearing vegetation around huts, building stronger corrals for cattle. “You learn to adapt, but the risks are real.”

Conservationists warn that Gujarat may already have more lions than it can sustain safely. Only 1,800 square kilometres of the state’s lion range is under formal protection, and just 250 square kilometres is exclusive lion territory. The rest overlaps with farms, towns, and villages.

“The region as a whole has far exceeded its carrying capacity,” says veteran biologist Ravi Chellam. Lions have been documented on busy highways, in the basements of hotels, even roaring from the terraces of village homes. They also face accidents — falling into wells, being electrocuted, struck by trains, or exposed to disease outbreaks that could sweep through the concentrated population.

The new census marked the return of lions to Barda Wildlife Sanctuary, where 17 were recorded for the first time since 1879. The Gujarat government has promoted Barda as a “second home” for lions, and Project Lion, a $341 million programme launched in 2020, prioritises developing the sanctuary.

But critics argue Barda is too small, too close to Gir, and too resource-poor to count as an independent population. “It’s not geographically isolated,” Chellam notes. “The point of a second home is to reduce the risk of losing the entire species to a single disaster.”

In 2013, the Supreme Court of India ordered some lions moved to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. The relocation was to be completed within six months. Twelve years later, no lions have been shifted.

Kuno offers vast forests, abundant prey, and distance from Gir — the very conditions conservationists say are needed. Yet Gujarat has resisted, reluctant to let go of its lions, which are both a source of pride and tourism revenue. Meanwhile, in 2022, eight African cheetahs were flown into Kuno, sparking debate over whether that project was designed to sideline the lion relocation.

“Cheetahs don’t prevent lions from going there,” Jhala argues. “In fact, lions would thrive in Kuno.”

The lion holds deep cultural weight in India, from Hindu goddess Durga’s mount to the national emblem itself. Gujarat’s conservation story is rightly celebrated as one of the world’s great wildlife turnarounds. But experts warn that the success has outgrown its setting.

“What we see today is a conservation triumph,” Jhala says. “But without more space, without a true second home, it is also a ticking time bomb.”

The human-lion pact that saved the Asiatic lion once before may now decide whether it can survive the future.