ORDER CARNIVORA: CARNIVORES 295 



Kinnear (1920, pp. 37-39) writes: 



[The Lion] was formerly found in Sind, Bahawalpur and the Punjab, 

 becoming extinct round Hariana, in the latter province, in 1842. It was 

 however extinct in Sind before that date and the last on record was shot 

 near Kot Deji in 1810. Exactly how far eastwards the lion was a regular 

 inhabitant we do not know, though there is a statement of one being killed 

 in the Palamaw district, Behar and Orissa, in 1814, but whether this was 

 merely a straggler or not, there is no evidence to show. The southernmost 

 limit appears to have been the Narbada. In 1832 one was killed at Baroda, 

 while further north it was comparatively common round Ahmedabad in 

 1836. Central India in these early days was one of the strongholds of the 

 lion and to give an idea of its numbers we may mention that Lydekker was 

 informed that during the Mutiny, Colonel George Acland Smith killed up- 

 wards of 300 Indian lions and out of this number 50 were accounted for in the 

 Delhi district ! 



The occurrence of the lion in Cutch is doubtfully recorded. The lion 

 probably was found in Cutch at one time but the records are not satisfactory. 



Dates of extermination in other parts of India, according to Kin- 

 near, are: Damoh district (Saugor and Narbada territories), 1847- 

 48; Rewah (between Allahabad and Jubbulpore), 1866; Goona, 

 1873; Abu and Jodhpur (Rajputana), 1872; Deesa (Guzerat), 1878; 

 Palanpur (Guzerat), 1880. 



A map, showing dates of extermination of the Lion in various 

 localities in India, is given by Pocock (1930, facing p. 661). 



"A small number [of African Lions] were imported into Gwalior" 

 about 1890-1900, "but after a few years they became a pest, killing 

 not only the cattle of the natives, but also the natives themselves, 

 so that the African lions were all eventually shot out. Also, the 

 tigers of Gwalior are famous, and as tigers will not permit lions to 

 remain in their territory, they must have helped to kill off the lions." 

 (Vernay, 1930, pp. 81-82.) 



"In India the lion is verging on extinction. There are probably a 

 very few still living in the wild tract known as the Gir in Kattywar, 

 and a few more in the wildest parts of Rajputana, especially South- 

 ern Jodhpur, in Oodeypur, and around Mount Abu." (Blanford, 

 1888, p. 57.) 



"In 1893 ... a rough census was taken [in the Gir Forest], 

 and the number remaining was estimated at twenty-six, which sub- 

 sequent estimate raised to thirty-one. . . . There are now esti- 

 mated to be only twenty lions remaining in the Gir, of which eight 

 are cubs. (Lydekker, 1900, pp. 270-271, quoting from The Asian 

 newspaper of June 19, 1900.) 



"It is only in the Province of Kathiawar, a small peninsula north- 

 west of Bombay, that the true Asiatic lion can still be found. Even 

 there it exists only in the Gir Forest, an area of four hundred square 

 miles in the State of Janagadh. . . . 



