Early on Saturday morning, two lions ventured into a residential colony in Junagadh in Gujarat. The incident was caught on a mobile phone camera. The person who recorded the video seems to get closer and closer to the lions, who do not appear to notice. The lions were reported to have been in the area for 20 minutes before returning to the forest.
This is the second such incident here in 2016. Early in July, a pride of lions had ventured 3.5 km into the city in residential areas populated by at least 10,000 people.
In September, a report in The Hindustan Times had suggested that illegal mining in the Gir forest would increase the chances of man-lion conflict. A two-day national seminar celebrating 50 years of the Gir Sanctuary also begins on Monday.
Nearly 200 experts and forest officials will attend the conference in Ahmedabad, and will deliver talks on “the present situation of Asiatic lions in context with lions spreading outside sanctuary limits”.
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