AMRELI: A lioness, captured after she attacked three persons in Gujarat's Amreli district, died while receiving treatment on Saturday evening, reportedly showing signs of a ‘nervous disorder’. On Friday, the lioness, who was around four to five years old, attacked three people throughout the day in Vavera village of Rajula taluka. In the morning hours, it attacked a man and a woman, injuring both. Then, in the evening, it attacked another person in the same village. After these incidents, the forest department mobilised and cordoned off the area before commencing a search and rescue operation. The operation lasted several hours and ended with the lioness being hit with a tranquiliser dart. Subsequently, the lioness was transferred to a rescue facility in Bhavnagar for a checkup and treatment. 

It was during the treatment that, according to forest officials, the lioness started showing signs of a nervous disorder and soon thereafter succumbed to it. 

As per a government report in 2020, the population of Asiatic lions in Gujarat rose nearly 29 per cent to 674 from 523 in five years from 2015, while the distribution area of the lions went up 36 per cent. In a reply to a question in the state assembly in February 2023, state forest minister Mulu Bera said 240 lion deaths were reported in the state in two years in 2021 and 2022 due to various natural and unnatural causes. 

With inputs from PTI.