Gujarat’s Forest and Environment Department has announced a package of permanent safety measures for the Girnar hill pilgrimage route in Junagadh, a week after an Asiatic lion killed 11-year-old Mayur Chauhan near the 50th step of the newer staircase. The steps include round-the-clock thermal drone surveillance, 25 dedicated forest trackers, permanent wildlife check posts, and a formal Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the route, according to The Hawk and NewKerala.
What triggered the response
Girnar is one of Gujarat’s most-visited pilgrimage sites, drawing lakhs of devotees up its roughly 10,000-step climb each year, including a surge around Shravan month and major festivals. It sits inside the Girnar Wildlife Sanctuary, part of the wider landscape that is home to Asia’s only wild population of lions outside the core Gir forest. The route reopened to pilgrims only in recent years after a newer staircase extension was built to ease congestion on the older path, and it was on that newer stretch that the attack occurred. The route was shut immediately afterward while officials assessed the incident. This week’s announcement is the government’s formal response, made under Forests and Environment Minister Arjun Modhwadia with input from Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel.
What’s changing on the ground
- Permanent check posts at points along the route with frequent recorded wildlife movement.
- 25 forest trackers on continuous vigil along the pilgrimage path.
- Thermal drone surveillance to spot animals near the route at dawn, dusk and night, when lion movement is more likely.
- A “Silence Zone” declared across the Girnar and Datar stairways, restricting loud music and noise that can startle wildlife into unpredictable movement.
- A district-level SOP, finalised under the Junagadh Collector, covering pilgrim safety, wildlife management and emergency response coordination between the forest and district administrations.
A public awareness campaign and permanent advisory signage are also planned, aimed at pilgrims and residents who use the route outside daylight hours.
What it means for pilgrims and residents
For the steady flow of devotees who climb Girnar through the year, the practical change is about visibility and response time, not restriction: check posts and trackers are meant to catch early signs of an animal near the path before pilgrims reach it, rather than close the route outright. That matters for a local economy built around the pilgrimage. Guides, porters, tea stalls and lodges along the base depend on steady footfall, and an extended shutdown would hurt them directly. The plan also signals how the state intends to manage the underlying tension at Girnar: a protected lion habitat that overlaps with one of Gujarat’s busiest walking pilgrimage routes, a combination that has produced occasional big-cat encounters before but rarely a fatality of this kind.
Outlook
The SOP under the Junagadh Collector is the piece to watch. It will determine whether measures like the silence zone carry real enforcement (permits, monitoring, penalties) or remain guidance. Forest officials will also need to show the thermal-drone and tracker network holds up once the initial attention fades and pilgrim volumes return to normal, particularly during the upcoming Shravan season when footfall typically spikes.
This report was compiled and written with AI assistance from publicly reported sources, and reviewed for accuracy.