Gir National Park

West India

Rugged, scraggly, brown and dry, Gir is best known as the last bastion of the Asiatic lion. A beautiful hilly but harsh and thorny habitat in southern Gujarat, it is the last remnant of native landscape within the Saurashtra peninsula, yet often compared with the African bushveld. Old lion adversaries including leopards, hyenas, jackals and sloth bears live here too. The lions that once ranged from Asia Minor to the northern plains of India almost came to the brink of extinction due to a combination of reduced habitat and mindless hunting. Today, roughly 526 of them can be found in and around Gir, the only individuals left on the subcontinent. The forest area and its lions were declared as ’protected’ in the early 1900’s by the then Nawabs of the princely state of Junagadh. This initiative assisted in the conservation of the lions whose population had plummeted to only fifteen due to endless trophy hunting. In the years after India’s independence, Prime Minister Nehru, spurre...d on by conservationists like Dr Salim Ali, formally declared Gir a Forest Reserve in 1965 and eventually a National Park in 1974 with a total area of 1,412 square kilometres. While on your safari, don’t be surprised if you find tribesmen roaming this lion country on foot with their cattle without a care. These people are from the Maldhari tribe that translates to ‘owner of animals’. These colourful, nomadic people have lived alongside lions for millennia – with mutual respect. Read more