The Lions’ Land: People, Lions, and the Environment in the Gir Forest, India

Building on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park in the Saurashtra peninsula of Gujarat, India, this project explores the politics and peculiarities of coexistence between pastoralists and lions. Once a vast forest, the last century has seen increasing restrictions on movement of both people and animals in and around the Gir region. Funds from CGII will be used to travel to the British Library for access to the India Office Records. Maps and population records from this archive will be used to enrich the ethnographic data, providing a picture of the how the forest, people, and lions have looked, changed, and moved across time.