A 10-Year-Old‘s Open Letter to Narendra Modi: Save the Asiatic Lions Before It’s Too Late

We can’t afford to let this happen

We can’t afford to let this happen

by Agastya Singh

Dear Prime Minister Modi,

My name is Agastya Singh. I study in Class VI. I am a big wildlife enthusiast. Wildlife has been my passion since I was a young child. I have been to many national parks across India.

In December 2015, I went to Gir National Park with my grandparents, aunt and cousin. In our very first safari, we saw a pride of lions. The next day, we saw the alpha of an Asiatic lion pride. I was very excited. But this lion had a big wound on its back. It seemed as if a humongous thorn had poked it. Or, it could be that it had been badly wounded in a fight with another lion.

My visit to Gir made me wonder if maybe the park was too small. Our guide told us that there are around 63,000 herbivores in Gir. There are also nearly 530 lions. When I got back home, I watched a video of a lion that was spotted in east Madhya Pradesh. It had probably escaped from Gir. In June 2015, another lion from Gir National Park had been found in Somnath. It was roaming in the streets.

While researching about this, I found out that in April 2013, the Supreme Court had ordered shifting of some of lions to Kuno-Palpur forests in Madhya Pradesh. They were supposed to be shifted by October 2013. But, not a single lion has been shifted so far to Kuno. The Gujarat government hasn’t done it.

I think it’s because people in Gujarat are proud that their state is the only home of the Asiatic lions. But, we can’t afford to let this happen.

There are two reasons we must do this. If we don’t:

a) there will be more man-animal conflicts, and lions might get killed by local residents.

b) if the lion population in Gir keeps increasing, biodiversity in the park will change from head to toe. Herbivores will decrease drastically.

I am writing to you to request that the Asiatic lions are shifted to Kuno Reserve soon. It will help people and our lions.

With my best regards,

Agastya Singh
Age: 10
City: Noida