Now, tourists at Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) at Borivali (Mumbai) can see a pair of Asiastic lion and lioness being brought from Sakkarbag park in Junagadh in Gujarat in the near future. In exchange, a pair of tiger and tigress from SGNP would be given to Junagadh, announced Sudhir Mungantiwar, Forest Minister.
Mugantiwar, who was on tour to Guajrat, discussed the issue on Monday with Jagadish Vishwakarma, Forest Minister from Gujarat, in Ahmedabad. It is reported that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has also been signed for exchanging big cats. The authorities concerned would send the proposal to the Central Government for taking its sanction to the exchange programme.
Sunil Limaye, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife), Maharashtra, had already discussed on the proposal with Abhishek Kumar, Director of Sakkarbag Park. Then as per directive by Limaye, Dr Clemant Ben, Addl Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, and G Mallikarjun, Director, SGNP, had discussed about the exchange programme with PCCF (Wildlife), Gujarat, on April 4, 2022.
