Eighteen Asiatic lions will be tried in the murder of three people in Gujarat. Police seem confident that they will be able to frame the lions. As punishment, one of the eighteen lions will be sentenced to life in a zoo. The rest of the eighteen will be released back into the wild.
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Asiatic lions are on the endangered species list. There are about 400 lions remaining in the wild. Humans are intruding on their land; with this shared space roughly only 270 lions can be accommodated. The small space forces some of the lions to migrate, leading them straight into human-animal conflicts, said a Scroll.in report.
The investigators of the case have been following the lions' behavior, and they believe that they have one guilty lion picked out. In an interview with BBC, wildlife expert Ruchi Dave said, "Man-eating lions usually get aggressive at the sight of a human being." The investigators are still waiting for the results of nine other lions.
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Lion in Gir Forest in Gujarat. Image source: Indian Express
The Supreme Court stepped in and ordered for the animals to be relocated to other states. The lions have yet to be moved. Gujarat says the process will take 25 years (or more) to move the lions from the Gir National Park in Gujarat to the Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. The Prime Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, opposes the relocation of the lions. Since the Supreme Court's involvement in 2013, they directed the government to relocate the wild cats.
Abigail Andrea is an intern at NewsGram. Twitter @abby_kono
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