Gir National Park, Gujarat

Some 600 Asiatic lions call Gir National Park home. That’s the entire population of a species that used to roam from Greece to Bangladesh tucked away into a tiny corner of Gujarat. The only lions left outside of Africa might be thriving here – their population has more than doubled in the last 40 years – but they are still vulnerable. Human-lion conflicts are increasing as more lions roam beyond the park’s boundaries in search of space, and the pride is one contagious disease or one devastating forest fire away from extinction.

The Asiatic lions are its star turn, but Gir National Park, or Sasan Gir, isn’t a one-trick pony. This is Gujarat’s most biodiverse natural area, a big claim in a state boasting one of the world’s largest salt deserts, extensive mangrove forests and 23 designated wildlife sanctuaries. As Kashka Lantis, Gujarat expert at our tour operator Exodus Travels says “The chances to see the lions are reasonable, but come ready to enjoy whatever you see. This is a wonderful national park, beautiful to explore with lots of other wildlife too, including lots of different types of deer and antelope, hyenas, leopards, rusty spotted cats and porcupines. And over 300 species of birds”.

You won’t have Gir National Park to yourself, but this is certainly a quieter step away from the jeep-filled, sometimes chaotic tiger safaris in India’s more famous reserves like Ranthambore. Peace aside, the way the safaris work are similar – as Kashka Lantis explains: “Safaris here are similar to tiger safaris in other parts of India. You’ll head out in the early morning or early afternoon on jeeps. Expect 6am starts in the morning. If you’re going to be given a chance to see the Asiatic lions then the morning is when they’re most active.”

While lions are the main event in Gir National Park you’ll want to keep your eyes open for leopards too. In other areas of India these elusive big cats are displaced by their stripy cousins, but leopards’ interactions with lions are different, and as a result, while still elusive are seen here more regularly than in any other park in India.

You won’t be toasting any lion or leopard sightings with a post-safari sundowner however, Gujarat is a dry and mostly vegetarian state – and while alcohol licenses are available you are prohibited from drinking in public. Kashka adds “Gujarat is where Gandhi was born and the state is very respectful of his beliefs and that heritage.”

It’s shocking to think that before the turn of the 20th century, Asiatic lions roamed from Greece to Bangladesh, across the Arabian Peninsula and into central India. Since then intense hunting has all but wiped out these magnificent creatures, leaving Gir National Park and its surrounding forests as the only, tiny enclave of Asiatic lions left on the planet. And the only place to see lions outside of Africa.

The 600 lions that call Sasan Gir home, however, are thriving. By 2010, the lion population had doubled in the preceding 30 years, and since then has risen by another 30 percent. But, unfortunately, conservation success has bred its own problems. Human-lion conflicts are increasing in surrounding communities as lions roam further outside the park boundaries in search of space, into land that has been increasingly cultivated for crops to feed an ever-growing human population. Tourism, which can bring in vital conservation funds, also brings its own pressures and demands on Gir’s natural resources. The Gujarat Tourism Board lays out the problem: “Tourism itself is a growing threat to Gir. Clearly, the genuine visitor is beneficial, but tens of thousands of people visit the park every year simply as an afterthought to their trip to Somnath or Junagadh, stopping in for a few hours to snap a photograph of the lions in captivity. These visitors create a huge demand for infrastructure but do little of benefit to the park or the lions, not even staying long enough to really experience it or learn much at all”.

It adds “Wild natural environments are confined to extremely limited areas, and human civilization, industry and economy has overtaken everything else. The problem is not, in fact, that the lion population has grown “too big for the park,” but that the park is far too small for the lions. As a visitor, let this be an opportunity to spark your imagination on the question of shifting the priorities of humanity towards re-integrating ourselves with the rest of life.”