Wildlife Initiative
Coexisting at the
Edge of the Wild
Living with Lions: Monitoring for Coexistence
India’s Asiatic lion population has grown significantly, reaching 891 wild lions in 2025, a 32% increase since the last census in 2020. While this reflects decades of successful conservation, it also brings new challenges. Lions are no longer confined to Gir National Park and Sanctuary alone and are now spread across Gujarat with a greater number of lions residing outside protected areas. This growing presence in human-dominated areas underscores the urgent need for coexistence-focused conservation approaches that address rising interactions between lions, people, and shared landscapes.
There’s an urgent need to understand how these apex predators navigate human-dominated landscapes. The Wildlife Initiative responds to this challenge by using non-invasive acoustic monitoring to track lion movements and behavior beyond traditional forest boundaries. The project aims to generate critical data that can inform conflict mitigation, guide conservation efforts, and promote safer coexistence between communities and wildlife.