Pride of Gujarat Gujarat’s Geer forest today is the sole and last bastion of the Asiatic lion, with the carnivore’s numbers till April, 2005, based on sightings being 359. Unlike tiger conservation, the attempt to protect lions and increase their numbers is considered a success story as poaching is relatively scarce in the sanctuary. The last reported case was in April 2007, when eight lions were killed in three incidents. By contrast, in 2009, reveal sources, about 120 tiger deaths were recorded in India. Of these, at least one fourth were perpetrated by poachers. So far as poaching of lions is concerned, it is reported to have occurred in response to the great demand for derivatives such as medicines and charms from tiger bones in countries such as China. Lion bones, apparently, are passed off as tiger bones by traders in animal parts. In the wake of the poaching episode, the Gujarat Government set up a task force to review security arrangements. This body recommended the use of high-tech gadgets such as GPS, automated sensor grid and night vision devices. The GPS-based system would facilitate surveillance, animal tracking and tracking of vehicles entering the sanctuary; and the sensors would help in classifying and locating intrusions. Night vision devices would assist mobile patrolling squad’s spot poachers by enhancing surveillance capability in the dark. Gujarat’s success at conservation is especially notable because the Geer forest is the sole habitat of the king in India and the world. Its rival has 41 sanctuaries, big and small, reserved for it, under Project Tiger, which commenced in 1973 as a centrally sponsored scheme. The project was upgraded into a statutory body, National Tiger Conservation Authority, on September 4, 2006, for a period of three years. The 11th Five Year Plan allots Rs 600 crore for tiger conservation. This apart, international conservation agencies have since long been focussing on tigers and handsomely funding conservation efforts here and elsewhere. But despite the frenetic global involvement with tiger conservation, the number of the big cats, as per Minister of State for Forests and Environment Jairam Ramesh, has declined to about 1,000 from 1,411 in the last census, conducted four-five years ago. Kutchh Desert