1500 villages under scanner for Lion census beginning from May 2

AHMEDABAD: The much awaited Asiatic Lion census, covering one of the biggest ever area in its census will cover over 1500 villages around the sanctuary. The nine month long exercise which began since June last year has revealed that the lions have found new homes in around 1500 villages in eight districts.
The 2010 census has revealed a count of 411. According to officials the biggest challenge will be to have the exact count outside the sanctuary as the spread was in too vast area especially outside the sanctuary.The officials said that according to officials within the sanctuary there are beats which will be used for the counting but outside the sanctuary there are around 623 clusters where the lions presence have been noticed on every alternative day or almost daily. The officials said that these clusters are an area which comprised of two to ten villages.
The Chief Conservator of Forest Dr A P Singh said that the census will be conducted in two phases the primary count will be held on May 2 and 3, while the final count will be held on May 4 and 5. “This year the number of people applying to be part of the census volunteers so much that the officials have formed a special scrutiny committee to select the volunteers for the count,” he said. He said that 2015 census was in one of largest area where the census is conducted by the forest department.
The officials said that this would be the first census where the count will be taken up in eight district including Junagadh, Porbandar, Amreli, Gir-Somnath, Bhavnagar, Botad, Rajkot and Jamnagar. The officials said that the 2010 census had revealed that there were less than 100 lions outside the sanctuary but this time according to experts the number has almost doubled.
The officials said that the officials have even asked the village sarpanch and their volunteers in the villages to keep a close eye on the movement of the lions. If the lion did not exist in their village and if suddenly they spot the big cat, they should inform the officials immediately.