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Introduction
The Gir National Park is located among the low, undulating and excellently irrigated hills in the Junagadh district of Gujarat. It is famous for being the last existing natural home of the Asiatic lion, although it has a healthy population of other animal species too. The Gir forest covers an area of 1150 square kilometers with 300 square kilometers forming the core area of the national park. The park receives a good annual rainfall averaging 1000mm. The temperatures at the park vary to extremes, as they do with most of the country too. In winters, the temperatures go down to as low as 6 degrees centigrade, while soaring up to a scorching 46 degrees in the summers. The park is open to visitors from November to May but the best time for visiting the park, taking comfort and wildlife viewing into consideration, is December to March. The park offers many excellent drives through scenic areas. For the more impatient and less adventurous, the park authorities organize "lion shows" in the Dewaliya area, which are a sure-shot way of seeing the magnificent big cats. These "spectacles" for the public are hopefully soon going to be axed, as is proposed by the more thoughtful of the governing bodies, and a safari park instead is to replace them with an area of around 1000 acres being set aside with a higher population density of lions to enhance sighting chances.
Although the conservation drive at Gir has brought the lion numbers up to a respectable 250 - 300 from a miniscule 20 that it had gone down to, the concerned authorities feel that these numbers are not enough. They feel that in case of the occurrence of an epidemic or some other natural calamity, the survival of the magnificent animal is in grave danger. The numbers of the lions at Gir have reached a kind of saturation point and the only way to now increase the numbers is to trans-locate some specimens as base populations to other areas in the country. Two earlier attempts within the state of Gujarat failed in the long run and there were plans on another attempt being formulated. Also in the offing is an attempt to trans-locate the lion to an area with suitable elements in Madhya Pradesh. This project seems to have run into difficulties with the Gujarat state government reluctant to release any of it's prised possessions to another state.
The Gir National Park is well connected and accessibility is not a problem. It is well connected by road and rail transport to neighbouring towns and there are regular connections to choose from. The park's railway / bus station is located close to the entrance at Sasan.
The nearest town to the park is located at Veraval (42km)
The nearest railway station is located at Sasan itself (1km)
The nearest airport to the park is located at Keshod (86km)
The park authority's head quarters are based at Sasan.