INDIAN: India's entire captive lion population of about 350 is under a virtual death sentence in zoos across the country.
The Central Zoo Authority, monitoring the "death watch", wants the cross-bred Asiatic lions, which were allowed to mate with their African cousins through a flawed and unsupervised reproduction programme, to die out. Their "unholy union" has resulted in a hybrid strain which has lost not only its basic characteristics but also its immunity to disease.
Consequently, over the next decade the authority plans on replacing the defective species with pure Asiatic lions from the Gir Wildlife sanctuary in western India, where about 300 of the animals survive. Its aim is to preserve the purity of the majestic Asiatic lion, which is slightly smaller than the African variety and with a smaller mane.
"The hybridisation between the Asiatic and African lions in zoos and their subsequent inbreeding since the mid-1980s has weakened the bloodline and devastated their gene pool," Kuldip Kumar, director of the Chhatbir zoo near Chandigarh, 250 km north of New Delhi, said. In recent years, the emphasis in Indian zoos had shifted from display to conservation, he added.
A third of the lions in Chhatbir zoo, once the flagship of the flawed breeding programme which resulted in producing nearly 100 cats, have died over the past four years of the yet-to-be-identified disease to which they have no immunity.
The remainder are mangy and emaciated versions of their proud forbearers, howling constantly in agony because of their gaping wounds, unable to stand or sleep.
Their agonising wails pierce through the 450-acre zoo as they prop themselves helplessly in the confines of their narrow enclosures. The Wildlife Act prohibits them from being put to sleep despite their perpetual agony.
With their shabby coats and thinning manes, these animals inspire only pity at the Lion Safari Park as they lie listlessly around, fending off the flies which hover over their festering wounds.
Even though they are well looked after and ministered to by the zoo authorities, there is little succour that can be provided to the wretched animals.
The lion-breeding programme in Indian zoos went awry in the early 1980s after some African lions believed to have gate-crashed from circuses were introduced alongside the Asiatic lions. In the first few litters, the genetic flaws of the crossed species did not surface and for a few years, zoos such as Chhatbir became role models for the lion-breeding programme.
Visitors to the zoo delighted in being driven around the lion-rich safari park in a clapped-out bus which sometimes broke down midway and would be almost immediately surrounded by roaring lions.
Terrified passengers were then asked by an equally nervous driver to get down and push the stalled vehicle. No accidents were reported, but an intrepid few who did fleetingly venture out ended up as momentary heroes. The lion park now has two new buses, but the lifeless lions are no longer the star attraction.
As the death watch continues, there will come a time when India's zoos will have no lions before the pure species is born again.