Dalvoy Logo
Dalvoy
GPSC MainsGeneral Studies Paper IVEthicsPractice question

Asiatic Lion Human-Wildlife Conflict in Gir Landscape

You are serving as the Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) of the Wildlife Department in the Gir forest region, which is the last natural habitat of the endangered Asiatic lions. Over the past few decades, successful conservation efforts have resulted in a steady increase in the lion population. Consequently, lions have increasingly started crossing the boundaries of the protected sanctuary and frequently entering nearby villages, agricultural fields, and mango orchards. Recently, the human-wildlife conflict in your jurisdiction has reached a critical point after a child from a farm labourer's family was fatally attacked within the boundary of an orchard. There are now alarming reports that some villagers have started installing illegal high-voltage electric fencing around their agricultural fields and poisoning animal carcasses in an attempt to retaliate against and deter these wild felines (lions). At the same time, local commercial resort owners and eco-tourism operators are pressuring the administration to keep the surrounding wildlife corridors open, arguing that tourism provides significant revenue and employment opportunities for the region. What ethical dilemmas arise before you in this situation? What are the causes of this human-wildlife conflict? What immediate steps would you take to address the situation? If the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) of Gujarat seeks your opinion on this matter, what recommendations would you make?

IdentifyExamineRecommend~250 words4 min readmedium
Attempt it first, timed · optional

Write the answer on paper, as in the exam. Start the timer, keep to the word target.

00:00/ 11 min · 250 words

Done writing? Photograph the sheet and see how it scores against this model answer, with feedback on what to fix.

Upload your answer sheet

How to approach

Identify the primary ethical dilemmas confronting the forest administration, balancing constitutional duties of conservation with human rights and social justice. Analyse the ecological and socio-economic drivers causing conflict spillover outside the protected area. Detail rapid crisis-response measures to stabilise the immediate situation, followed by strategic, long-term policy recommendations for the Chief Minister's Office.

Model answer

800 words

Introduction

The Gir forest landscape showcases a rare conservation triumph where Asiatic lion populations have grown steadily, yet this success has triggered acute human-wildlife friction across human-dominated agro-pastoral landscapes. As the Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF), the governance challenge entails reconciling the statutory duty to protect a Schedule I flagship species under Article 48A and the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, with the fundamental right to life, safety, and dignified livelihoods guaranteed under Article 21 for vulnerable agrarian communities.

Key Stakeholders Involved

  • Bereaved Family and Farm Labourers: Highly vulnerable seasonal workers facing physical danger and bearing the direct brunt of predator presence without safety nets.
  • Resident Agrarian Community: Smallholders experiencing crop loss, livestock depredation, and existential anxiety, prompting unlawful retaliation.
  • Commercial Tourism Operators: Resort owners and safari operators prioritising economic windfalls from unfettered wildlife movements.
  • Forest Department and State Administration: Officials entrusted with upholding the rule of law, preserving endangered wildlife, and maintaining public peace.
  • Asiatic Lion Population: The world's sole surviving wild population of Panthera leo persica, dependent on fragile territorial ranges.

Ethical Dilemmas Faced by the DCF

  • Anthropocentrism versus Ecocentrism: Balancing the fundamental Right to Life under Article 21 for agricultural workers against the constitutional directive under Article 48A and the statutory obligation to preserve an endangered species from extinction.
  • Distributive Justice: Addressing the structural inequality wherein affluent commercial resort operators reap the financial dividends of eco-tourism, while impoverished seasonal labourers pay the ultimate human cost through fatalities and constant terror.
  • Rule of Law versus Compassionate Administration: Enforcing strict criminal penalties under Sections 9 and 51 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 against desperate farmers setting up electric fences, while empathising with their profound grief, fear, and lack of institutional protection.
  • Economic Exploitation versus Ecological Integrity: Navigating intense lobbying by tourism businesses demanding permeable corridors for visitor sightings against the administrative imperative to secure human settlements and maintain controlled buffer zones.

Causes of the Human-Wildlife Conflict

  • Ecological Carrying Capacity Saturation: Gir National Park and Sanctuary covers approximately 1,412 sq km, an area biologically insufficient for the expanding population; consequently, over 40% of Asiatic lions permanently occupy revenue lands, coastal scrublands, and agricultural orchards.
  • Habitat Fragmentation and Corridor Disruption: Unplanned commercial development, resort proliferation, high-speed road corridors, and railway lines have severed contiguous migratory pathways, forcing lions into densely populated mango orchards and farm settlements.
  • Precarious Habitations of Farm Labourers: Seasonal labourers live in temporary, flimsy shelters erected inside orchards, lacking perimeter barriers, domestic sanitation, and nocturnal illumination, leaving children and women acutely exposed to nocturnal predators.
  • Shifting Land-Use and Prey Depletion: Alteration of traditional crop patterns and reduced natural wild prey in outer revenue lands induce lions to predate on domestic livestock and seek shelter in dense orchard canopies.

Immediate Administrative Steps

  • Victim Relief and Emotional Support: Promptly disburse the state ex-gratia compensation (up to ₹10 lakh) to the bereaved family within 24 hours, alongside free psycho-social counselling and emergency logistical support.
  • Capture and Relocation of Conflict Animal: Mobilise Rapid Response Teams (RRT) equipped with night-vision drones, camera traps, and veterinary tranquilising units to identify, humanely capture, and isolate the specific conflict animal in strict adherence to Central Zoo Authority guidelines.
  • Crackdown on Lethal Deterrents: Conduct joint combing operations with the local police and Paschim Gujarat Vij Company Limited (PGVCL) to locate and dismantle illegal high-voltage farm tapings, seize poisoned bait carcasses, and issue legal notices under the Wildlife (Protection) Act and Indian Electricity Act.
  • On-Ground Safety Fortification: Distribute solar lanterns to all orchard workers, establish non-lethal solar-powered pulsating energiser fences (Zatka fences) around labour clusters, and deploy round-the-clock patrol units to monitor pride movements.

Recommendations for the Chief Minister's Office (CMO)

  • Operationalisation of Satellite Habitats: Expedite the development of Barda Wildlife Sanctuary and Shetrunji coastal corridors under the Centrally Sponsored Project Lion framework to disperse prides safely away from the congested Gir core.
  • Strict Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) Regulation: Demarcate and notify strict buffer regulations around Gir; mandate the immediate closure of unauthorised luxury resorts, prohibit commercial night-safari tracking, and enforce wildlife underpasses on transport corridors.
  • Mandatory Masonry Housing for Migrant Labour: Formulate an administrative directive making it legally obligatory for orchard and commercial farm owners to construct predator-proof, electrified, and pucca residential pods with sanitation for seasonal labourers.
  • Eco-Tourism Conservation Cess and Community Dividend: Impose a 5-10% conservation cess on all private resort earnings in the Gir circuit to establish a local Community Conflict Mitigation Fund. This fund should finance crop and livestock insurance payouts within 48 hours and recruit local rural youth as salaried 'Vanyajeev Mitras' (Wildlife Stewards).

Conclusion

A durable resolution to human-wildlife conflict requires transcending reactive containment in favour of institutionalised coexistence. By decentralising lion habitats through Project Lion, enforcing accountability on commercial tourism, and redistributing economic gains to vulnerable farm labourers, the state can safeguard Gujarat's biodiversity heritage without compromising human welfare and social justice.

Key facts to remember

definition
Carrying Capacity

The maximum population size of a biological species that a specific environmental habitat can sustainably sustain without degrading ecosystem stability and resource availability.

statistic

According to official forest census data, more than 40 percent of Gujarat's Asiatic lions permanently reside outside the boundaries of protected sanctuaries within human-dominated agro-pastoral landscapes.

— Gujarat Forest Department Census
scheme
Project Lion (2020)

A conservation initiative launched by the Government of India to secure Asiatic lion habitats, develop satellite populations in Barda Wildlife Sanctuary, deploy advanced surveillance, and enhance community-based conflict mitigation.

Frequently asked questions

What legal action can be initiated against illegal electric fencing and poisoning in lion corridors?

Under Sections 9 and 51 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, retaliatory poisoning or using high-voltage electric lines to kill Schedule I wildlife is treated as hunting, carrying mandatory imprisonment of three to seven years and non-bailable arrest warrants.

← All questions on this topic (15)