Gir Forest is famous for protecting the world’s only wild population of Asiatic lions in Gujarat, India.
Gir Forest National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary is located on the Kathiawar Peninsula. The protected landscape includes dry deciduous forest, thorn scrub, grassland, and seasonal rivers. It provides habitat for the Asiatic lion, Panthera leo leo, a lion population distinct from the better-known African populations.
Asiatic lions once ranged across much of western and southern Asia. Hunting and habitat loss reduced them to a small remnant in and around Gir by the early twentieth century. Protection under the Nawab of Junagadh and later Indian conservation laws helped the population recover.
Gir also supports leopards, chital deer, nilgai, mugger crocodiles, and many bird species. The Sundarbans, by contrast, are best known for Bengal tigers and mangrove habitat, not Asiatic lions.