On October 23, one day before Diwali, Akhilesh Yadav was a worried man. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister had visited the Lion Safari Project at Etawah to check on two ailing big cats — Vishnu and Lakshmi. The lion and lioness had arrived in Etawah a couple of months ago and took ill in September. They couldn’t move and had poor appetites. There were symptoms of paralysis and viral infection, but a clear diagnosis remained elusive. Hospitals nearby and international agencies were consulted, but on October 31 Lakshmi died of cardio-respiratory failure resulting from partial paralysis. Trouble was brewing for the state government’s much-touted lion-breeding programme. Often fodder for election rallies, the lions of Etawah were not just a wildlife concern but also a growing political problem for the chief minister.
In April this year, ahead of the general elections, Yadav and the then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi traded barbs over the felines of Etawah. “Your chief minister asked for lions from me. But he couldn’t handle the Gujarat lions. They had to be caged,” Modi told the crowds at Bareilly, inviting Yadav and his father Mulayam to visit the Gir forests and “see how the lions roam freely”. Yadav’s feeble retorts that it was a “political courtesy” and even they had given Gujarat “hyenas but never spoke about it” were no match for Modi’s lion-sized rhetoric. When Lakshmi and Vishnu took ill after their arrival in Etawah from Kanpur Zoo, Modi’s claims seemed to ring true.
The Etawah Lion Safari — seen as a pet project of Yadav and his UP strongman father — was first proposed in 2005. Work began much later, in May 2013, after environmental clearances were obtained. The 350-hectare safari is located just outside Etawah town, near the Chambal sanctuary.
“Fifty hectares is the safari area, the rest is buffer,” says Sujoy Banerjee, the then deputy conservator of forests (Chambal division), who drew up the master plan. “At the northern end of the safari, we constructed a centre for conservation and breeding, two animal houses and a state-of-the-art hospital, all of which are functional.” Modelled on the lines of the UK’s Longleat Safari Park, the first drive-through safari outside Africa, the Etawah project is currently home to three
After Lakshmi and Vishnu arrived in Kanpur last year, they were not in perfect health. Lakshmi contracted the bacterial infection leptospirosis and was treated for a month before she recovered. But in September, both Lakshmi and Vishnu were injured during the shift to Etawah. In early October, they came down with multiple infections and paralysis.
Experts from the Indian Veterinary Research Institute at Bareilly and Mathura Veterinary College were called in. Doctors from Kanpur and Lucknow zoos had set up camp at the safari for over a month; advice poured in from Junagadh Zoo, Pune, the Bear Rescue Centre at Agra and Longleat Park. Despite the constant vigil and treatment, the disease remained undiagnosed.
“There might be a case of genetic suppression,” says Rupak De, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (UP). Inbreeding among lions, though rare, makes them vulnerable to diseases. “Not much is known about captive-lion behaviour and mating yet,” says KK Singh, director of Etawah Lion Safari Project. Post-mortem reports have not yet revealed what caused Lakshmi’s death, and nephew Vishnu’s condition seems to be worsening. “In the last couple of days, he has also developed a cold,” says De.
The Asiatic lion-breeding programme has been hugely successful in Gujarat; the lion population more than doubled from 180 in 1974 to 411 in 2010, with 97 males, 162 females, 75 sub-adults and 77 cubs. More than 100 lions bred in captivity have been sent to zoos across the country and abroad. The nascent Etawah project, in contrast, has run into several difficulties. Nearly ₹150 crore has been invested in it. But delayed clearances and the struggle to clear the safari region of the exotic weed Prosposis juliflora, or lantana bush, have weighed it down.
With the death of the lioness, the breeding programme, down to three pairs, is on shaky legs.
Although four-year-old Lakshmi and Vishnu originally came from the Hyderabad Zoo, the current political storm hinges on the likelihood that they are from the same stock as the lions of Gir. The director of the Etawah project, however, disagrees. “They are not from Gir, they are from Hyderabad,” says Singh. Rupak De adds, “We don’t know the history of the lions and where they came from before Hyderabad. But the programme will not be affected.”
With Vishnu under round-the-clock observation at Bareilly, Singh remains hopeful but also stresses the need to “be realistic.” Meanwhile, the political barbs notwithstanding, talks are underway between the UP and Gujarat administrations to procure another lion pair from Gir. There could still be roaring times ahead in Etawah, after all.