Asiatic Lions Junagadh City Sakkarbaug Zoo News Saurashtra Gujarat India

Lioness' honeymoon has authorities on tenterhooks.

It's a ‘tale' of two honeymoons.

One of a lioness that never happened for curious reasons and that of Dadra and Nagar Haveli (DNH) authorities, which is about to end.

The authorities had great hopes when they set up Vasna Lion Safari seven years ago on 60 acre of land at Vasona village in DNH. Now, they are caught on the horns of a dilemma.

Neither have they enough lions to call it a safari, nor can they close the highly ambitious project. Two Asiatic lions -- Kush, Dharma and two lionesses -- Sonal and Silky -- were brought to the safari from Gir with the hope that their numbers would increase through breeding.

However, the lions were unable to procreate and died. Lioness Silky, too, died, leaving Sonal alone in the wilderness, which have dashed the authorities plan of having a thriving safari.

The authorities, however, are not willing to give up that easily. "We have decided to bring one more lion from Junagadh City Sakkarbaug Zoo," assistant conservator of forests (wildlife), DNH, Dilipsinh Mangrola said.

"We have sent many requests to Central Zoo Authority (CZA) to grant permission to bring more Asiatic Lions from Junagadh to DNH. But there has been no positive response," said deputy conservator of forests, DNH B Chaudhry.

The authorities want to bring a lion to the safari at the earliest because of CZA guidelines, which say a lone animal is not allowed in a safari for public display.

Mangrola has suggested that in the mean time, Sonal be taken for mating with an Asiatic lion in Gir. If it happens, it will end the authorities honeymoon with the proposed safari, but will kick off a bright and long-awaited one for Sonal.

Girnar Temples Parvat Mountain Lili Parikrama Junagadh News Gujarat India

Enthusiasts begin Girnar Parvat Lili Parikrama ahead of schedule.

Two days before the 36-km historic Girnar Parikrama - the amazing annual religious walk when devotees tread mountainous terrain to worship at temples located in the dense forest area – will officially commence, over 50,000 enthusiasts have already started their walk uphill.

Packed trains and buses are arriving at Bhavnath, the starting point of the walk every hour. Over one lakh people have already reached Bhavnath, sources said.

"The official walk will be flagged off at 12 pm on October 29. However, eager participants have already started the walk on their own," a source at Bhavnath said. Some wish to avoid the rush of Lakhs of devotees and enjoy the three nights and four days of nature peacefully at their own pace," the source added.

Meanwhile, anticipating this, the district administration too had made arrangements by Tuesday morning. "Medical camps, water points, complete police security have all been put in place from Tuesday itself so that even early birds will get all the facilities," a district official said.

On its part, the forest department, which becomes the official host of the event, has also made all arrangements. District forest officer at Girnar Anita Karne said, "All arrangements are in place along the route from Bhavnath to Zina Bava ni Madhi to Malvela, Bordevi and back to Bhavnath.

It's the forest department's responsibility to see that the roads are made and security is maintained. We have done our best to ensure that the event goes off smoothly."

Appealing to people to conserve natural surroundings, Karne said, "We have repeatedly appealed to people to maintain cleanliness along the route. Special bins have been put up and people are requested to dispose of all solid waste in them. It's our collective responsibility to preserve the environment."

Uses of microphones by cultural groups who come to the parikrama have also been banned. "We have banned all loudspeakers since the last two years and have done our best to see that there's no noise pollution," Karne added.

Junagadh Kutch Main Diwali Tourist Attractions Gujarat India

Junagadh District, Kutch see tourism boom in Diwali.

Gujarat’s two districts; Junagadh and Kutch are having great tourist rush this Diwali vacation.

Most of the hotels and guest houses are booked. There are long queues at temples and taxis are over booked.

Junagadh district located in Gujarat’s Saurashtra area has three major tourist attractions to offer: Somnath Jyotirlinga temple, Sasan Gir Lion Sanctuary and Girnar Parvat Hill.

Junagadh’s Sakkarbaug zoo which is the largest and oldest zoo of Gujarat known for its Asiatic Lion and cheetahs is witnessing thousands of visitors; Ambaji temple located atop Gujarat’s tallest Girnar Mountain Hill is also full of visitors according to its priest Tansukhgiri Maharaj.

In Somnath, all residual facilities were booked and long queues were formed for Lord Somnath’s darshan at Aarti time to accommodate extra rush in the evenings. In Sasan Gir Lion Sanctuary tourists faced shortage of hotel rooms. Some tourists had to stay in Junagadh to visit Sasan Gir due to unavailability of Hotel room in Sasan Gir proper. Some tourists who wanted to visit Sasan Gir safari also faced one day waiting period.

Another hot and proven tourist destination in Gujarat this Diwali is Kutch district in this Diwali vacation. Destinations such as Matano Madh and Narayan Sarovar-Koteshwar are witnessing inflow of thousands of tourists. Bhuj based Gujarat’s oldest Kutch Museum is also witnessing great rush of visitors.

Major tourist attractions in Kutch include Bhuj, Kalo Dungar, Dholavira Harappan archaeological site, Narayan Sarovar-Koteshwar, Lakhpat fort, Banni, Chhari Dhand, Rann of Kutch, ethnic villages, Jain religious places etc.

Kutch is now worldwide known tourist destination for rural tourism. This year’s Rann festival in Kutch will be organized in December.

Girnar Mountain Wildlife Junagadh Gujarat India

One Injured leopard was caged near Girnar Mountain Forest Area.

In a daring wildlife operation, foresters caged an injured leopard near Damodar Kund area in Girnar forest after tranquillising it on Friday.

According to forest officials, they rushed to Damodar Kund after receiving a message about a leopard sighting in the area. Officials located the animal lying in a nearby cave and decided to catch it while it was asleep.

"However, before we could make any advance, the leopard woke up to the noise made by villagers and began running. However, it fell after limping for a few steps and we realized the big cat was seriously ill," said assistant forest officer PS Babariya.

"We changed our plans as we didn't want to cause any injury to the leopard. We first called a veterinary doctor from Sakkarbag zoo in Junagadh before tranquillising the animal," said Babariya.

"The leopard was perched on a cliff, which the officials surrounded. Once the leopard was shot at with a tranquilliser gun, it sprang at one of the officials. However, before it could harm him, it became unconscious and fainted," he said.

The foresters carried the leopard on their back and shifted it to Sakkarbag zoo veterinary hospital, where during examination it was found that the big cat had developed a suppurating wound in his abdomen and was also suffering from jaundice.