Gujarat Restructures Porbandar Forest Division to Develop Barda as Second Home for Asiatic Lions
Porbandar: The Gujarat government has carried out a major restructuring of the Porbandar Forest Division to strengthen its plan to develop the Barda area as a second habitat for Asiatic lions. The reorganisation aims to improve forest management, increase ground-level monitoring and ensure smoother implementation of wildlife conservation schemes.
Lions have returned to the Barda region on their own after a gap of nearly 143 years. In view of this, responsibilities at the range, beat and officer levels within the forest department have been clearly defined. The move is intended to improve patrolling and local surveillance and to prevent human-wildlife conflict.
Under the new administrative arrangement, the Porbandar Range will now cover 80 villages spread over a total of 6,840.84 hectares. Its main beats include Porbandar City, Gosabara, Mokar, Visavada, Kantela, Madhavpur and Satiya.
The Ranavav Range will extend across 27 villages covering 13,051.25 hectares. It includes beats such as Godhana, Bileshwar and Ranavav.
For administrative convenience, forest land measuring 305.94 hectares across four villages of Bhanvad taluka has been transferred to the Bhanvad Range of the Porbandar Forest Division. This area was earlier under the RF/W Bhatia Range of the Jamnagar Forest Division.
In addition, administrative control of the Kutiyana, Porbandar Social Forestry and Ranavav Social Forestry ranges has now been brought under the Porbandar Forest Division. To speed up administration, the allocation of vehicles, weapons, wireless sets, office equipment and staff has also been completed in line with the new structure.