Child mauled to death by lioness in Gujarat's Amreli

Amreli: A five-year-old son of a farm labourer has been mauled to death by a lioness in Gujarat's Amreli district, a forest official said on Tuesday.

The child was playing outside his hut in a plantation area of Navi Jikadri village under Jafrabad taluka on Monday evening when the big cat attacked him and took him away, range forest officer GL Vaghela said.

After an extensive search carried out by locals and forest department personnel in the area, the body was found and sent to a hospital, he said.

The victim was the son of farm labourers, he said.

Efforts were being made to capture the lioness, the official said.

Gujarat is the only abode of Asiatic lions, which has seen its population grow significantly from 284 in 1990 to 674 in 2020, as per the last census carried out by the forest department.

Nearly half of the big cats are dispersed outside protected areas, spanning nine districts and 13 forest administrative divisions, with their distribution area increasing from 22,000 square kilometres in 2015 to 30,000 sq km in 2020, the forest department has said.