THE KATHIAWAR LION. 



BY 

 LlEUT.-COLONEL L. L. FeNTON. 



In spite of the fact that a certain amount of protection is accorded 

 to Gir lions by the Junagadh Darbar, there cannot be the slightest 

 doubt that they are gradually, but surely, approaching extinction. 

 Not so very many years ago they were to be found in fairly consider- 

 able numbers in the country round Gwalior, Goona, Saugor, Khan- 

 deish, Jhansi, and even as far eastward as Allahabad. The districts, 

 round Mount Abu, Deesa and Ahmedabad, along the banks of the 

 Sabarmatti river as far as the Kunn, were also favourite localities for 

 them. In an old sporting magazine I have read that in the year 

 1832 the officers of the 23rd Bombay Cavalry used to hunt lions on 

 horseback in the Deesa districts, in what way it was not stated, and an 

 old well-known officer, formerly of the Central India Horse, inform- 

 ed me thai during the time he was with this regiment no less than 

 26 lions were shot by the officers in Central India. 



They have, however, long since disappeared from all these localities. 

 The last lion that was, I believe, shot outside Kathiawar, was shot on the 

 Deesa race-course, by the late Colonel Heyland of the old 1st Bombay 

 Cavalry. This was over 40 years ago. It was rumoured, a few days 

 ago, that another one had been seen somewhere in the -;ame neigh- 

 bourhood, but this could not be proved. In Kathiawar itself, some 

 linoered for a time in the Barda and Aleche Hills in the South and 

 in the wild tracts round Chotila, known as the " Tanga," and in parts 

 of Dhrangadhra, Jasdau, and a few other States in the North of the 

 Province. Then they were heard of only in the Gir Jungle which 

 has always been their home in the Girnar Hill, which, before it was 

 isolated by the march of cultivation, was practically part and parcel 

 of the Gir, and in the Barda Hills, which lie about 10 miles north of 

 the Port of Porbandar, a very rugged group measuring about 10 miles 

 across, covered where the soil allows of it, with low jungle, which, 

 also before their isolation owing to the same cause, were connected 

 with the Gir by way of the Aleche hills and the then rough country 

 extending between Dhank and Chorwar on the sea coast. When, 

 however, with the gradual settlement of the country, these last two 

 favourite haunts were cut off from the Gir by cultivation, the lions 



