The Gir landscape in Saurashtra, Gujarat, has turned into a textbook case about the struggles of wildlife management in India. In mid-September, the Union government released a draft notification for an eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) around the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary (GWS). Earlier, a 0-10 km periphery around 1,468.16 sq km of the core territory of the GWS was considered a buffer zone which forbade the establishment of heavy, polluting industries and mining. In the revised draft, this area has shrunk substantially—to a minimum of 2.78 km from the sanctuary at some places and up to a maximum of 9.5 km at others. The draft proposes a 2,061 sq km region around Gir as an ESZ spread over 196 villages in Junagadh, Amreli and Gir Somnath districts, including 17 rivers, 24,000 hectares…
