The traffic on the Bhavnagar-Somnath Highway in Gujarat stopped briefly today after an Asiatic lion was spotted walking on the road in surprise, halting the movement of vehicles for at least 15 minutes. 

The ‘king of the jungle’ was seen crossing a bridge and cars, trucks and bikes stopped to let the lion cross the highway. The video was shot from a car that had stopped on the other side of the road. The incident took place in Gujarat’s Amreli district.

The lion walked towards a temple down the slope adjacent to the highway.

Earlier a total of six lions and lionesses were spotted in a residential area late at night in the district. A CCTV showed a cattle on the street chased by lions and lionesses.

Wildlife movement is increasing in the Amreli district. Recently, a lion was stopped on a bridge near the Dudhala village in the district. Several lions have been injured and a few have died due to their unexpected movement on the Bhavnagar-Somnath highway.

Videos of lions straying into residential areas and preying on domesticated cattle in villages on the border of Gir have become a common sight.

Gujarat is the world’s last abode of Asiatic lions and Girnar forests is home to more than 50 free-ranging Asiatic lions. Lions are usually spotted in this region in the dead of the night.

The Gir Forest National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, also known as Sasan-Gir, is known as the “last abode” of Asiatic lions. The last surviving population of the Asiatic lions is a compact tract of dry deciduous forest and open grassy scrublands in the southwestern part of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat.

The lions are now distributed in nine districts of the state – Junagadh, Gir Somnath, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Botad, Porbandar, Jamnagar, Rajkot and Surendranagar – covering around 30,000 square km of area, which is termed the Asiatic Lion Landscape.

– with inputs from Mahendra Prasad