Rajkot: A cattle rearer was injured in a lion attack in Sihor taluka of Bhavnagar district on Tuesday while grazing his goats near a village.The injured man, Vijay Baliya, a resident of Todi village, was rushed to a hospital in Palitana, where he is undergoing treatment.Deputy conservator of forests, Bhavnagar, Yogesh Desai, said, “The lion was trying to hunt the goat, but the cattle herder tried to save it. He suffered injuries from the lion’s claws. He is under observation.”The incident comes amid growing concern over increasing human-lion conflicts in the region. In the past two months, five people have been killed in lion attacks across Junagadh, Amreli, and Bhavnagar districts, triggering alarm among residents living alongside Asiatic lions in revenue areas.Forest officials noted that the latest incident occurred in a revenue area, adding that most recent cases of human-lion conflict have taken place outside protected forest habitats, in revenue villages of Bhavnagar and Amreli districts.
