Lions Rebound Thanks to Conservation Success

India’s Gujarat state is seeing an increase in its lion population following extensive conservation efforts.

“Official lion numbers could touch 900 in the 2025 census. Informal estimations, however, peg this number close to 1,400-1,500 in the state,” says a senior forest official.

Asiatic lion numbers in the region were drastically dwindling until conservation measures were put into place. Although the official estimate will be released in May, current predictions suggest that this year’s increase is expected to exceed 30%. Previous growth trends include 27.25% in 2015 and 29.78% in 2020. The growth can be partially explained by a 36% expansion of the lion’s territory over the past five years. Various internal sources believe the number of Asiatic lions in their region may be even higher than the officially released numbers due to the conservative reporting approach used in the official count, which took into account factors such as cub mortalities. However, even the “conservative number” reveals a positive trend for these lions.