Frygt for at Asiens sidste løver skal blive udryddet af en epidemi eller brande har fået Indiens højesteret til at afsige kendelse om, at den vestlige delstat, Gujarat, skal afgive nogle af de store rovdyr til sin østlige nabo, Madya Pradesh.
Asiatic lions have been almost wiped out in India but conservation efforts by Gujarat during the last 50 years have saved them from extinction, writes BBC online Monday.
Political leaders there had resisted efforts to relocate some of the remaining around 400 Asiatic lions in Gujarat’s Gir forests.
Gujarat pointed to Madhya Pradesh´s poor record on protecting its own tiger population in the Panna reserve forest (hvor der nu ikke længere er en eneste tiger tilbage, red.).
But the court gave wildlife authorities six months to complete the transfer of a yet undecided number of the big predators to a forest sancturary in Madhya Pradesh.
It also ruled against government plans to introduce African cheetahs (geparder) by importing them from Namibia. The cheetah became extinct in India nearly half a century ago.
