Asiatic Lion Conservation & Naturalist Specialist Tour

Route: Arrive Ahmedabad airport, transfer to hotel, about 20 km

Your naturalist guide meets you at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport for the private transfer to your hotel.

Over dinner, your guide sets out the story this tour is built around: how the Asiatic lion, once spread from the Middle East to eastern India, survived the twentieth century in a single forest in Gujarat. The IUCN moved the Asiatic lion from "Endangered" to "Vulnerable" in 2024, the first downgrade in the subspecies' modern conservation history, and that is the arc this trip follows, not just a lion count.

Note: This is a specialist, naturalist-led tour, not a general wildlife-plus-beach itinerary. Every day in Gir is built around conservation content, not sightseeing for its own sake.

Experience of the Day

• Airport pickup and check-in

• Dinner briefing: the Asiatic lion's recovery story

Food

Recommended: Dinner at the hotel.

Must-Try: Gujarati thali: dal, kadhi, farsan and sweets.

Activities to Do

• Rest and settle in

• Conservation briefing over dinner

Route: Ahmedabad to Sasan Gir via Junagadh, about 375 km, 7 to 7.5 hours by road

The direct road south runs through Junagadh, a city that sat at the edge of the old Gir forest for centuries under its Nawabs, who protected the lions here when shikar parties elsewhere were shooting them to extinction across the rest of their Asian range. A short stop in Junagadh breaks the drive; the Mahabat Maqbara's domes are worth ten minutes if your guide has the time in hand.

You reach Sasan Gir by late afternoon. Before dinner, visit the Sasan Gir Museum, a small but useful orientation stop: taxidermy, photographs and information panels on the lion's life cycle, the forest's other wildlife, and the conservation history that runs from the first sanctuary notification in 1965 through to today.

Experience of the Day

• Drive through Junagadh, former seat of the Nawabs who first protected Gir's lions

• Sasan Gir Museum: life cycle, conservation history, taxidermy and photographs

Food

Recommended: Dinner at the lodge.

Must-Try: Bajra rotla with jaggery and ghee, and sev tameta.

Activities to Do

• Drive to Sasan Gir

• Sasan Gir Museum

Optional Nearby Excursions

• Mahabat Maqbara in Junagadh, a short stop if time allows

Route: Sasan Gir local, safari zones and Devalia, about 60 km in all

Your first safari runs at dawn, when the forest is coolest and lions are most often moving. A licensed forest guide travels with the vehicle, which stays on the route set by your permit; the zone you are allotted is decided by the forest department on the day, not chosen by us.

In the afternoon, visit Devalia, officially the Gir Interpretation Zone: a 412-hectare fenced section of the same forest, 12 km from Sasan, created so visitors without a main-zone permit can still see Gir's habitats and wildlife at close range. For a conservation-focused visit it is worth the stop in its own right, not a consolation prize: it exists specifically to ease pressure on the core safari zones, and your naturalist guide can speak more freely here about habitat management than is possible from a moving safari jeep.

Note: Devalia is closed on Wednesdays. Where your Day 3 falls on a Wednesday, this visit is moved to Day 4 or 5 instead.

Experience of the Day

• Dawn jeep safari

• Devalia, the Gir Interpretation Zone

• Guide-led discussion on habitat management

Food

Recommended: Dinner at the lodge.

Must-Try: Kathiawadi sev tameta and bajra rotla.

Activities to Do

• Dawn safari

• Devalia Interpretation Zone

Route: Sasan Gir local, safari zone, about 40 km

Gir's lions share this forest with the Maldharis, pastoralist herders who have lived here for generations and regard the lion with religious reverence rather than fear. Livestock loss is compensated by the forest department, and research has found lion density is actually higher in areas where Maldhari settlements remain than where they have been moved out, since the herds support a larger prey base. Your guide covers this in a morning session rather than as a drive-by stop; there is no organised tourist visit to a Maldhari settlement, and we do not arrange one, so as not to turn someone's home into a photo stop.

The second strand of the morning session is Gir's population math and what comes after it. The lion count has gone 287 in 1936, 523 in 2015, 674 in 2020, 891 in the most recent, 2025 census, recovering from a near-wipeout a century ago. All of Gir's wild lions still live in one contiguous landscape, which is itself a risk: a single disease outbreak or disaster could threaten the whole population. Project Lion, the Union Government's dedicated lion conservation programme, has approved funding of roughly Rs.2,927 crore over ten years, including a National Referral Centre for Wildlife in Junagadh district. Its most visible result so far is at Barda Wildlife Sanctuary, about 190 km west near Porbandar, where five lionesses were translocated under forest department monitoring and have since bred naturally; the 2025 census counted 17 lions there, now recognised as the first satellite population under Project Lion. Barda is not part of this itinerary, but it is very much part of the story your guide will walk you through.

The Human Story

A folk saying among the Maldharis holds that a lion taking a cow once a year is simply the forest's share of the herd. Six generations of some families have stayed in Gir by choice, after being offered resettlement.

Experience of the Day

• Naturalist session: Maldhari coexistence and the Gir lion census, 1936 to 2025

• Afternoon jeep safari

Food

Recommended: Dinner at the lodge.

Must-Try: Bajra rotla with smoked aubergine and garlic chutney.

Activities to Do

• Naturalist session

• Afternoon safari

Route: Sasan Gir local, safari zone, about 40 km

Your fourth and final safari runs at dawn. If your permit zone that day includes the area around Kamleshwar Dam, often called Gir's lifeline for how much of the forest's wildlife depends on it, you will likely see mugger crocodiles and waterbirds on its banks along with whatever else the morning brings; which zone you are allotted is set by the forest department, not guaranteed in advance.

The rest of the day is open. Rest at the lodge, go through your safari photographs with your guide, or ask any remaining questions about the conservation programme you have been hearing about all week. In the evening, a closing dinner closes out the naturalist sessions with a final Q&A.

Experience of the Day

• Dawn jeep safari, Kamleshwar area if the permit allows

• An open afternoon

• Closing dinner and naturalist Q&A

Food

Recommended: A farewell dinner at the lodge.

Must-Try: Kathiawadi thali, the region's full home-style spread.

Activities to Do

• Dawn safari

• Open afternoon

• Closing Q&A dinner

Route: Sasan Gir to Ahmedabad via Junagadh, about 375 km, 7 to 7.5 hours by road

The drive back to Ahmedabad is the trip's other long day. Book onward or international flights after about 7:00 pm to leave a comfortable margin.

You leave with four safaris, a museum visit, an interpretation-zone tour and two naturalist sessions behind you, and a clearer picture of what it actually took, and still takes, to keep one forest from being the last chapter in the Asiatic lion's story rather than a footnote in it.

Experience of the Day

• Road transfer to Ahmedabad

• Onward or international departure

Food

Recommended: Breakfast at the lodge.

Must-Try: Lunch on the road.

Activities to Do

• Drive to Ahmedabad

• Departure