Majestic pride of 14 lions cross highway in India's Gujarat. Rare video goes viral
A pride of lions was seen crossing a road in Gujarat at night. The fascinating video was viral as it's an unusual to see such a large pride of the big cats.
A pride of 14 lions, including lionesses and cubs, was caught on camera crossing a road in India's Gujarat, near the Gir National Park. The rare sight of the wild animals was recorded at night in Amreli district in the southern part of the state.
The video, which quickly went viral, captivated social media users because it showed a large pride moving together in darkness, which is not commonly witnessed.
In August 2017, a pride of 10 to 12 lions were seen on CCTV camera, roaming freely in a village in Amreli district at night. In villages and residential areas bordering the Gir National Park, it is not uncommon to see wild animals sauntering into areas with human inhabitation.
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In April, another viral video from Gujarat showed a lioness with her two cubs walking in the forest.
The Gir forest is the last surviving natural habitat of the endangered Asiatic lions.
The number of Asiatic lions in Gir forests has gone up from 523 in 2015 to 674 in 2020, according to a report released by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change in 2020. It was less than 200 in the late 1960s, according to the Gujarat tourism website.
The big cats have moved to forested patches through conducive corridors and are now distributed in nine districts in Gujarat: Junagadh, Gir Somnath, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Botad, Porbandar, Jamnagar, Rajkot and Surendranagar.
This region, which covers an area of 30,000 square kilometres, is called the "Asiatic Lion Landscape".
A total of 239 lions, including 126 cubs, died in Gujarat in the last two years, and 29 of these fatalities were due to unnatural causes, Forest Minister Mulubhai Bera told the state assembly earlier this month.
