``The main purpose of this project is to provide a larger and a more spacious home for these carnivores,'' says Pradeep Khanna, the Chief Wildlife Warden of Gujarat.

The project is currently being developed around the existing Gir Sanctuary in Junagadh district of Saurashtra region of Gujarat which is the only natural home of Asiatic Lions in the world. "The forest department has identified several pockets of scattered forest around the Gir sanctuary which will constitute Greater Gir,'' says Khanna.

"Greater Gir project has been envisaged to facilitate the natural dispersal of lions, the population of which has been steadily rising,'' he said adding that his government was not in favour of translocation of lions to Madhya Pradesh or any other state.

According to the 2001 census, there were about 327 lions in Gir. This was an increase from the lowly 20-40 in the beginning of twentieth century after the Nawab of Junagadh banned lion hunting on his private landholdings in 1900.

This was the first significant effort towards protection of the Asiatic lions. After Indian independence in 1947, the area was declared a reserve and achieved full sanctuary status in 1965.

"According to the observations of the department in last one decade, the lions are migrating outside the confines of the sanctuary and finding new homes,'' Khanna says adding that the role of the forest department was to facilitate this process of dispersal of lions.

Some of the lions have already migrated to the pockets of forest land around Gir like Mitiyana, Jesar, Hipavali, Paniya and others, he says.

``Now if these areas are officially brought within the purview of the protected area of Gir, the forest department can assure the safety of lions that have migrated from the main sanctuary,'' Khanna says.

The forest department expects that an official ``protected'' status will be accorded to the new project within the next six months.

According to Khanna, neither the Gujarat government nor the forest department is in favour of shifting the lions outside Gujarat, but would prefer to expand the present territory of the lions to accommodate their increasing numbers.

``The pockets of land identified is largely grassland with a tree-cover in some of the places. This setting is ideal for the lions who prefer grasslands to dense forests,'' Khanna says.

The department has already started work on creating necessary infrastructure to support the lions. ``We have started building check dams and water holes in these areas,'' Khanna says.

``The lions living in these pockets will not exist in isolation. We will develop corridors linking these pockets with the main sanctuary which will ensure proper intermingling of lions,'' he adds.

However, he was not clear as to how these corridors will be created.

Talking further about lion-conservation in Gir, Khanna says, ``Current plans are directed towards managing lion-human conflict by integrating the local Maldhari population living in and around Gir in the management of the species.''

According to him, Maldharis are not any way directly involved in the management of lions but ``tolerate'' them as part of their environment and are sensitive towards animals in general.

``Credit has to be given to the the local Maldharis who have learned to live alongside them,'' he says adding ``without their assistance lions would not have survived.''

According to the Chief Wildlife warden, no incidence of poaching or trapping of lions occurred in Gir in the recent past, which according to him reflected the awareness of the local populace about the lions.

The forest department gives financial compensation to the Maldharis who time and again lose their livestocks to the preying beasts. -- PTI