Ahmedabad, March 31: Poachers have killed three Asiatic lions in the rare animal's only natural habitat, an Indian official said on Friday, less than a month after killing another three of the big cats.
"We are shocked. In one month six lions have been killed," said P. N. Roychoudhary, a forestry official in the western state of Gujarat.
In all six cases, claws, skulls and bones of the lions were missing when their carcasses were found at the Gir wildlife sanctuary in Gujarat.
The bones are used for traditional Chinese medicine and the claws are worn by some men as pendants in the hope of increasing their virility.
The number of lions in Gir, where they are protected and bred in natural conditions, had risen to 359 in 2005 from 327 in 2001, a government census showed.
But the animals face other dangers besides poaching.
Twenty-one Asiatic lions have drowned in Gujarat after falling into wells over the past five years, raising fresh concern about how authorities are protecting them.
India is also struggling to save its endangered tigers, as people invade their habitat and poachers kill them for body parts that fetch huge sums on the international black market.
Bureau Report