Ahmedabad: A lion died after falling into a well at Kantala village in Tulsishyam Khambha range of the Gir East wildlife division in Gujarat's Junagadh district, over 300 kms from here, a forest officer said on Saturday. The lion died of injuries on Friday night.
"The lion, aged around 4-5 years, fell into the well located on farmland and died of injuries around 9:30 pm," he said.
According to Junagadh Chief Conservator of Forests, Dushyant Vasavada, the big cat appears to have tried to jump over the parapet of the well and fell down.
Ruling out any foul play, he said, "Forest department officials scanned the surrounding area but found nothing suspicious. The reason behind the death of the lion is either drowning and/or hemorrhage".
The carcass was taken to Khambha range office of the forest department to ascertain the exact cause of death, he added.
Meanwhile, in a related incident in the same wildlife division on Saturday morning, a 10-year-old girl was injured in a leopard attack near her house at Katarpara village.
The girl was first taken to Khambha hospital, from where she was referred to Amreli for further treatment, he said, a forest official said.
Gir forest is the only abode of Asiatic lions. As per the last census of 2015, it is home to 523 lions. However, the state government had recently announced that the number had increased to over 600.
Last month, the Gujarat government had informed the Legislative Assembly that as many as 222 lions have died, most of them due to natural causes, in the Gir forest region in the last two years.
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