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India officials say recent floods killed 10 endangered lions

NEW DELHI (AP) — Officials say monsoon flooding that killed dozens of people in western India last month also hurt the world’s last population of wild Asiatic lions.

An Asiatic lion rests in Gir forest, about 355 km from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad December 23, 2006. Photo: Reuters

An Asiatic lion rests in Gir forest, about 355 km from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad December 23, 2006. Photo: Reuters

NEW DELHI (AP) — Officials say monsoon flooding that killed dozens of people in western India last month also hurt the world’s last population of wild Asiatic lions.

The floods killed at least 81 people with mudslides, collapsed homes or high waters in Gujarat state, while thousands were forced to evacuate their homes.

Gujarat forest officials say in a report that the rains also killed at least 10 of the country’s 523 lions — the last members of the subspecies left anywhere in the wild.

The report, submitted this weekend to the state’s environment ministry, says other lions were found in “weak health and shocked condition” and were given treatment and food supplements.

The deaths underline conservationists’ concerns about keeping all of the lions in Gir National Forest in southern Gujarat. AP

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