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Marking World Lion Day 2026, the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Bhupender Yadav, stated that the Asiatic Lion population has risen from 523 in 2015 to 891 in 2025.
The lion range has expanded from around 30,000 sq km in 2020 to nearly 35,000 sq km.
Project Lion was announced by the Prime Minister on 15 August 2020 for long-term conservation of the species.
Project Lion follows a landscape-level approach covering habitat enhancement, disease monitoring and veterinary support, scientific population tracking, technology-aided interventions, biodiversity protection, benefit sharing and community involvement.
The Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Kirti Vardhan Singh, and the Prime Minister separately highlighted the role of forest officers, frontline workers and local communities in the recovery.
The entire wild Asiatic lion population lives in one landscape in Saurashtra, Gujarat. A species confined to one population is exposed to a single catastrophic event — an epidemic, a forest fire, a cyclone — wiping out the whole species at once. This is why conservation planning for the lion has always had two strands: growing the numbers, and spreading the risk by establishing additional populations. The recorded presence of lions in the Barda Wildlife Sanctuary near Porbandar, and the emergence of satellite populations outside the Gir protected areas, address exactly this concern. It also creates a second problem: with roughly 44% of lions now living outside protected forests as of the 2025 estimation, human-lion coexistence — livestock depredation, road and railway mortality, open wells — becomes the central management challenge rather than poaching.
Simple Analogy: Keeping all lions in Gir was like keeping a company's only data backup in one building. Barda and the satellite populations are the off-site copies.
Ensure long-term conservation of the Asiatic lion and its landscape
Key: Announced by the Prime Minister on 15 August 2020; adopts a landscape-level, holistic approach covering habitat enhancement, disease monitoring and veterinary support, scientific population tracking, technology-aided interventions, biodiversity protection, benefit sharing and community involvement
Periodic scientific estimation of the Asiatic lion population and its distribution
Key: Conducted by the Gujarat Forest Department; the 16th exercise was held in May 2025 over about 35,000 sq km across 58 talukas in 11 districts and returned an estimate of 891 lions, up from 674 in 2020 and 523 in 2015
Conserve the Bengal tiger and its habitat through a network of tiger reserves
Key: Launched in 1973; administered through the National Tiger Conservation Authority, a statutory body created by the 2006 amendment to the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 — the model on which later species projects were built
Protect elephants, their habitat and corridors, and address human-elephant conflict
Key: Launched in 1992 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
Reintroduce the cheetah, extinct in India since 1952, into suitable habitat
Key: Began in September 2022 with translocation of cheetahs to Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh — the other species-focused project frequently paired with Project Lion in exam questions
The Asiatic lion landscape sits in the Saurashtra peninsula of Gujarat. Its core is the Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary in the Junagadh-Gir Somnath-Amreli belt, with adjoining Pania and Mitiyala protected areas. Beyond this core, lions occupy coastal forest tracts and agricultural mosaics extending towards Bhavnagar, and the recently recolonised Barda Wildlife Sanctuary near Porbandar in the west. The overall range now approaches 35,000 sq km spread over 11 districts, which means the landscape is no longer a forest block but a mixed protected-area-and-farmland mosaic.
The Asiatic lion is listed in Schedule I, which carries the highest degree of protection and the strictest penalties under Indian wildlife law
The Asiatic lion is listed in Appendix I, meaning international commercial trade in the species is prohibited except in exceptional circumstances
The Asiatic lion population was assessed as Endangered when treated as the subspecies Panthera leo persica; following taxonomic revision it is now handled as the Asiatic subpopulation of Panthera leo, with the species as a whole listed as Vulnerable
The apex advisory body on wildlife conservation, chaired by the Prime Minister, constituted under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972; it clears projects in and around protected areas
Wildlife protection and forests were moved from the State List to the Concurrent List by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976, which is why the Centre funds species projects that States execute
Gir declared a wildlife sanctuary; a national park was carved out of it later
Wild Life (Protection) Act enacted; the Asiatic lion placed in Schedule I
Lion estimation records 523 lions
Lion estimation records 674 lions; range about 30,000 sq km
Prime Minister announces Project Lion
16th Lion Population Estimation conducted across 58 talukas in 11 districts of Gujarat
Population recorded at 891; range now nearly 35,000 sq km
On World Lion Day, the Environment Ministry publicly restates the 523-to-891 trajectory
The proposal to establish a second free-ranging lion population outside Gujarat — at Kuno in Madhya Pradesh — is the long-running counterpoint to Barda; Kuno instead became the site of Project Cheetah from September 2022
With about 44% of lions living outside protected forests as of the 2025 estimation, compensation for livestock loss, rescue infrastructure and safety measures around open wells and railway lines become core conservation tools
Disease surveillance is an explicit component of Project Lion precisely because a single-landscape population is vulnerable to an epidemic sweeping through the entire species
Project Lion sits alongside Project Tiger (1973), Project Elephant (1992), Project Snow Leopard (2009), Project Dolphin (announced 2020) and Project Cheetah (2022) — the set of species projects most frequently matched in exam questions
GS Paper 3 > Environment > Conservation, Biodiversity and Protected Areas
General Awareness > Environment, National Parks and Wildlife
General Awareness > Environment
"Project Tiger" was launched in India in which year?
Answer: 1973
Asiatic lion numbers, Gir and species projects are near-annual features in Prelims environment questions
The lion population surviving only in Gujarat, India; formerly assessed as the subspecies Panthera leo persica, now treated as the Asiatic subpopulation of Panthera leo
Announced by the Prime Minister on 15 August 2020 for long-term conservation of the Asiatic lion using a landscape-level approach
The periodic exercise conducted by the Gujarat Forest Department to estimate lion numbers and distribution; the 16th edition was held in May 2025
The schedule granting the highest level of protection and the harshest penalties for offences against listed species