Forest department officials cage lioness near Gondal village

RAJKOT: Lions have come knocking at the doors of Rajkot. Cases of the big cats preying on cattle in villages near the city are on the rise.
In the latest incident, Gondal forest department caged a lioness on Saturday night from Betvada village. Officials said that the lioness is about two years old.
A lion and a lioness were spotted after they had strayed into Betvada village which lies 35 kilometre away from Rajkot, a week ago.The forest department had set up cages across the village in the hope of capturing the pair.
“The villagers reported incidents of lion attacks and their sightings around the village. The pugmarks suggest that it is a pair of lions. We are yet to cage the lion,” said a forest department official. The official added that similar sightings have been reported from Jamkandorna during the last week.
In October this year, a scribe and photographer duo were attacked by a lion in Bildi village of Gondal taluka. They were in the area to report about similar incidents of cattle being killed by lions.
Forest department officials said that lions are now regularly spotted in villages of Jasdan, Gondal and Kotda-Sangani and Jamkandorna talukas.
A few months ago, lions had killed cattle in Bildi, Vinjuvadi and Sanala villages in Gondal taluka and Bhadva village in Kotda-Sangani taluka. These villages are about 25 kilometre from Rajkot.
The data analysis of direct and indirect evidence including sightings, prey and pugmarks shows that the kingdom of lions is now spread over 1,100 villages in three districts of Junagadh, Amreli and Bhavnagar alone in the Saurashtra region. At present, lions are spread over an area over 16,000 square kilometre in the region.