5-yr-old girl mauled to death by a lion in Gujarat

Amreli: A five-year-old girl was mauled to death by a lion in Gujarat’s Amreli district, forest officials said on Tuesday.

The incident took place around 8 pm on Monday in Kadaya village under Kunavav forest range, following which the carnivore was caught and taken to an animal care center, they said.

The victim, the daughter of a farm laborer from Rajasthan, was playing near a water tank in the village when a lion attacked her and dragged her for about half a kilometer towards the forest, an official said.

The girl’s father chased the lion and managed to free her from the carnivore’s jaws, but she could not be saved, the official said.

After being alerted, forest department officials rushed to the village and set up four cages to catch the lion. The adult male feline was later spotted, tranquilized, and shifted to an animal care center at Sasan Gir, the official said. Gujarat is the only abode of Asiatic lions.

As per a census conducted by the Gujarat forest department in 2020, there were 674 lions in the state.