BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh forest department, it seems, was waiting for a change of government to notify Kuno as a ‘national park’ in compliance with the last condition imposed by a Supreme Court-appointed committee for the much awaited ‘translocation of Asiatic lions from Gir in Gujarat .’ The notification was published on December 14, minutes after Congress announced Kamal Nath as the new chief minister of the state. Nath met officials later and promised to take up the matter towards a logical conclusion. Shivraj never spoke on this issue publicly considering Modi’s possessiveness for Gir lions.At the sixth meeting of the expert committee on translocation of Asiatic lions, the MP government was asked to notify the area by February 2017, but competent authorities kept it pending knowing the then government’s stand on this subject, said sources.“After this notification, there is nothing left to taken care of,” Shahbaz Ahmad state’s chief wildlife warden told TOI.State government has declared Kuno National Park with inclusion of an area spread along 404.0758 sq.km in addition to the earlier notified area of 344.686 sq km making a total of 748.7618 sq km area.In January 2017, Gujarat’s forest department had placed its objections before this 12-member committee and demanded that 36 studies be completed before the endangered Gir lions can be transferred to MP. Issues like prey base, habitat, vegetation and weather are said to be conducive for shifting of lions to Kuno sanctuary.The move is expected to pave way for translocation of lions from Gir in Gujarat to KunoThe MP forest department had promised to complete all formal processes of declaring Kuno as a ‘national park’ by the end of February. The expert committee had visited Kuno in December 2017.After spending nearly five hours at the sanctuary, the panel members had found the atmosphere in Kuno-Palpur suitable for shifting of lions.Gujarat, too, could not question much on MP’s preparedness to host the lions, sources said. Gujarat government had moved a curative petition in Supreme Court as its last legal resort to retain its Asiatic lions. It was dismissed. When shortage of prey base was cited as one of the major objections, the state declared 700 sq km as a protected area to resolve the issue. Sources said the prey base, which was presented before the court in 2013, was nearly 350 sq. km, which is the core sanctuary area.While MP won the eight-year-long legal battle with Gujarat in 2013, the latter had been dilly-dallying compliance. MP government circles had gone to the extent of suggesting that they were not averse to retaining the tag of ‘Gir' or ‘Gujarat' to identify the relocated lions at their new home in Kuno-Palpur.

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