August 10 is marked as ‘World Lion Day’ each year to drive attention towards the preservation and protection of the animal. Lions, known to be one of the scariest animals of the jungle with its golden fur and the flowing mane, is also magnificent to look at. The lion populations has dropped by more than 40% in the last two decades due to unrestricted exploitation of wildlife that threatens our biological diversity & causes ecological imbalance.
Lions are seen as the ultimate icons of pride, heritage, and power. Lions are the second-largest cat in the world, weighing between 300 and 550 pounds. But their existence has been troubled lately. World Lion Day on August 10, is observed to raise awareness about the conservation and sustainable solutions to save the global wild lion population, which has now reduced to only about 20,000. Lions, listed as “vulnerable” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, have lost a vast majority of their habitat — and resultantly their population — primarily because of conflict with humans, poaching, and trophy hunting. Seeing this rapid decrease in their population, a group of non-profits and tourism companies created World Lion Day to celebrate the animal and redirect the world’s attention towards them. Nearly all of the wild lion population exists in Africa. A small part of it stays around the Gir Forest National Park in India. After lions were announced as endangered in the Gir forest, they were introduced in multiple other sanctuaries to maintain their population.
