Lions escaped before the arrival of officials seeing the torches brought by them
A video showing a pride of lions preying on a cow along a road in Gujarat's Amreli is making rounds on social media. The 15-second video clip, reportedly shot by villagers, shows four lions hunting the animal.
Villagers gathered to watch the big cats on Sunday around 11 pm. They also informed the forest department officials. Frightened by torch lights brought by the locals, the lions escaped before the arrival of officials seeing the torches brought by them.
"When we were going ahead of Dhari village, we saw a group of lions moving on the road. In no time, the lions went inside the village and hunted the cow," farmer Rupesh Mordia said.
The villagers informed the forest department officials but before their arrival, lions went into the Sinho forest due to fear, he said.
Videos of lions straying into residential areas and preying on domesticated cattle in villages on the border of Gir have become a common sight.
In another incident from Amerli's Chalala, a lion sat in the middle of the road seeing a vehicle approaching its way. The video, shot by the driver, was later uploaded it on social media. This happened on Saturday.
Earlier this month, a pride of 14 lions were spotted crossing a highway in Gujarat. The video was shot by one of the tourists almost a week back in Gujarat's Amreli while crossing Dhari town as the Asiatic lions ambled across.
Gujarat is the world's last abode of Asiatic lions and Girnar forests is home to more than 50 free-ranging Asiatic lions. Lions are usually spotted in this region in the dead of the night.
The Gir Forest National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, also known as Sasan-Gir, is known as the "last abode" of Asiatic lions. The last surviving population of the Asiatic lions is a compact tract of dry deciduous forest and open grassy scrublands in the southwestern part of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat.
The lions are now distributed in nine districts of the state - Junagadh, Gir Somnath, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Botad, Porbandar, Jamnagar, Rajkot and Surendranagar - covering around 30,000 square km of area, which is termed the Asiatic Lion Landscape.
(With inputs from Mahendra Prasad)