Gujarat: Lion, lioness drown after falling into open well in Amreli

Amreli: A lion and a lioness fell into an open well in the Gir forest division in Gujarat's Amreli district and drowned, a forest official said on Saturday.

The big cats, aged five to nine years, were roaming in the area when they fell into the well belonging to a farmer in Kotda village in Khambha taluka on Friday morning, said Rajdeepsinh Zala, deputy conservator of forests (DCF), Gir (East).

"The farmer informed us as soon as he came to know about the incident. However, by the time the rescue team from the forest department reached the spot, the animals had drowned. Their carcasses were fished out and sent for post-mortem," Zala said.

Since 2007-08, at least 11,748 wells in the Gir East division covering Amreli and Gir Somnath districts have been secured with parapets to prevent big cats from falling into them, the official said.

"As many as 8,962 wells in Amreli and 2,782 in Gir Somnath have been covered with parapets. But this is just about our division. It is a continuous process as new wells keep coming up," Zala said.

In a reply in the state Assembly, then forest minister Kiritsinh Rana last March said that a total of 283 lions had died in two years till December 2021.

Of these, 21 had died unnatural deaths, including falling into wells and getting run over by trains and vehicles.