Biporjoy: As cyclone nears Kutch & Saurashtra, concern grows over Gir lions, Naliya bustards

  • June 15, 2023
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN Topics
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Biporjoy: As cyclone nears Kutch & Saurashtra, concern grows over Gir lions, Naliya bustards

Subject :Environment

Section: Physical Geography

Context:

  • Cyclone Biporjoy is expected to make landfall near the port of Jakhau in Kutch along the Pakistan border. Conservationists are worried about the Great Indian Bustards (GIB) of Naliya near Jakhau as well as the famous Asiatic lions of the Gir forest.

Details:

  • There are nearly 700 lions in the Asiatic Lion Landscape (ALL) spread across the Gir-Somnath, Amreli, Junagadh and Bhavnagar districts of Gujarat’s Saurashtra region.
  • The area is the last bastion of the Asiatic Lion (Panthera leo leo) in the world.
  • Earlier in 2018 an epidemic swept the Gir forest named Babesiosis.
    • It repeated the next year when Cyclone Tauktae hit Saurashtra.

Supreme Court directions over translocation of Gir lions:

  • The Supreme Court had directed in 2013 that Asiatic lions be shifted from Gujarat’s Gir forest to Madhya Pradesh’s KNP. It had rejected the Gujarat government’s plea against the translocation of lions as Gujarat held that these animals were the pride of the state.

Great Indian Bustard (GIB):

  • There is a concern for the four Great Indian Bustards in the grasslands of Naliya.
  • All are females and the last of the GIB population in Gujarat.
  • The Great Indian Bustard is one of the heaviest flying birds in the world.
  • Scientific Name: Ardeotis nigriceps
  • Habitat: Dry grasslands and scrublands on the Indian subcontinent; its largest populations are found in the Indian state of Rajasthan.
  • Distribution:
    • India, effectively the only home of the bustards, now harbours less than 150 individuals in five States.
    • Today, its population is confined mostly to Rajasthan and Gujarat. Small population also occur in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
    • It is the State bird of Rajasthan.
  • Protection Status
    • Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List
    • In Appendix I of CITES,
    • In Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

Lala Bustard Wildlife Sanctuary or Naliya grasslands:

  • The sanctuary is located near Jakhau village in Taluka Abdasa, Gujarat, India
  •  This sanctuary is one of the two great Indian bustard sanctuaries in Gujarat; the other one is in Jamnagar.
  • It was declared as a sanctuary in July 1992, specifically for the conservation of the great Indian bustard.
Biporjoy: As cyclone nears Kutch & Saurashtra Environment