The state of Gujarat has much to be proud of in creating a safe haven for the Asiatic lion. But the influx of tourists and the high concentration of animals in one area are creating problems for the management. Farmers living on the periphery of the Gir National Park routinely organize “lion shows” and unregulated tourism is creating problems of its own. Despite the Supreme Court’s order to translocate lions to their new home in Madhya Pradesh, the government seems to be dragging its feet on the issue. Can Gujarat share its pride—the Asiatic lion—with the rest of the country? While much of the nation’s conservation policies are centred on the tiger, another big cat, the Asiatic lion, has been breeding successfully in a corner of Gujarat. It’s a conservation success story that even Narendra Modi was proud of when he was the chief minister and took a personal interest in Gir in 2007 when there was a poaching outbreak. He even got Amitabh Bachchan to urge us to “breathe in a bit of Gujarat” and visit the Gir lions in their natural habitat. So successful was the campaign that Gir is now reeling under the intense pressure of unmanaged and often “illegal” tourism. On any given day, the Tulsi-Shyam range that is open for tourists has more than 25,000 vehicles passing through its gates, with the numbers increasing during the holiday season. Adding to the woes of the management is the fact that the lion population has nearly doubled and lions can now frequently be sighted outside the park, on its periphery and in areas as far as Bhavnagar and Amreli. An internal survey (The Times of India, September 2014) of the forest department reveals that 84% of the villages in Junagadh, 70% in Amreli and 31% in Bhavnagar have reported sightings of lions. The data is an important indicator of the wide area that the lions cover when they venture out of the sanctuary. Opportunistic villagers taking advantage of this have started organizing lion shows. For easy money, the villagers host tourists or arrange for lion shows for them in their farms or fields. Nothing wrong, you could say, if the lions are happy and it gets the villagers added income. Except it’s now a frequent side business that’s leading to the harassment of the big cat. Anshula Chaturvedi, a frequent visitor to Gir, was witness to one such incident this Diwali. “There were four Scorpios and a Fortuner in that field—tourists standing outside their vehicles; they had been promised a glimpse of the lions in a farmer’s field. The pride of seven-eight lions with cubs were sleeping in the field just a few feet away, when suddenly the cars dashed towards them with their headlights on full beam, chasing the pride, honking at them to make them get up and run.” Chaturvedi complained to the forest department, which increased patrolling in the area; the department maintains that such incidents are on the rise and difficult to control outside the national park boundaries. The following week, two incidents were reported of lions attacking tourists in farmers’ fields. There is no doubt that Gujarat has done a commendable job in protecting the Asiatic lion. But conservation science also tells us that a single habitat for a species is like having all your eggs in one basket. A disease outbreak could threaten the entire population of the Asiatic lion, confined as they are to one habitat. As more and more lions spill out of Gir in search of new habitats, and keeping in mind the scientific evidence, the Supreme Court ordered in April 2013 that a handful of lions should be moved out of Gujarat to another sanctuary created for them in Madhya Pradesh. The apex court had ordered for the task to be completed within six months. However, one year later and with a new government at the centre, little has moved in terms of making this a reality. A few meetings of all the stakeholders have been held, but the Supreme Court deadline has long since lapsed. Oddly enough, Akhilesh Yadav’s plan to create a lion safari in the Chambal ravines of Uttar Pradesh with zoo-bred lions is moving at a faster pace. This even though Yadav’s plans are of zero conservation value and will not help the Asiatic lions in the wild in any way. Yadav could have done well by promoting the existing biodiversity of Chambal such as the endangered gharials or the Sarus cranes; he instead chose to create a safari for a species that will be kept in cages and is no longer to be found there. But that’s another story. As Gir becomes too small for the ever-rising population of the lions, it’s time that Gujarat shared its pride with the rest of India. A new home for the lions in another state will take the tourism pressure off Gir to some extent and create a safety net for this species. Will the Modi-led Union government and his environment minister Prakash Javadekar take those bold steps to create a new home for the Asiatic lion? Bahar Dutt is a conservation biologist and author of the book Green Wars: Dispatches from a Vanishing World.