17 rare Asiatic lions perish in India - AFP

[Eugene]

Source: Agence France-Presse

17 rare Asiatic lions perish in India

Mon Apr 30, 12:43 PM ET

NEW DELHI (AFP) - India said Monday that 17 rare Asiatic lions
have died since January in a protected park in western Gujarat
state and unveiled a plan to shift the surviving cats to a new
habitat.

"The decision to shift the lions was taken because of fears that
adverse human actions or natural calamity may wipe out their
whole population," India's junior forests minister Namo Narain
Meena told parliament.

Meena said the surviving lions would be relocated from the Gir
National Park -- the world's only natural habitat for the rare
lions -- to the dense Kuno-Palpur forests in nearby Madhya
Pradesh state.

"Kuno-Palpur has been recommended as the best suited
alternative for the Asiatic Lions by an expert committee, which
had been asked to suggest measures for their protection,"
Meena said in a statement.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070430/sc_afp/indiawildlifeanimals_070430164324

[brokensymmetry]

1. Sad.

In the end, the only surviving wildlife will
be the cockroach. Maybe.