Lioness Hit By Goods Train In Gujarat; Survives With Minor Injuries

A lioness was injured on Wednesday when she was hit by a goods train while trying to cross railway tracks in Gujarat's Amreli district, the forest department said.

The big cat suffered minor injuries in the incident which occurred near Vijapadi railway station in Bhammar area at around 5 AM. The train was on its way to Surendranagar from Mahuva, as per a Forest department statement.

The lioness, aged around 7-8 years, was rescued and shifted to an animal centre for treatment, it said.

As per a government report in 2020, the population of Asiatic lions in Gujarat rose nearly 29 per cent to 674 from 523 in five years from 2015, while the distribution area of the lions went up 36 per cent.

In a reply to a question in the state assembly in February 2023, Forest Minister Mulubhai Bera informed that out of 240 lion deaths reported in the state in two years in 2021 and 2022, 26 fatalities were due to unnatural causes such as the big cats getting hit by vehicles or falling into open wells.

The state government has taken various steps to prevent unnatural deaths of big cats such as the appointment of veterinary doctors and introduction of an ambulance service for timely intervention and treatment of lions and other wild animals, the minister had said.

Other measures include building speed-breakers and installing signboards on roads passing through sanctuary areas, regular foot patrolling in forests, building parapet walls for open wells near forests, putting up fences on both sides of the railway track near Gir Wildlife Sanctuary and radio-collaring Asiatic lions to track their movement.

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