Ahmedabad, March 2 -- The Union government has approved Rs.2,927.71 crore for Project Lion, which includes establishing a National Referral Centre for wildlife (NRC-W) in Gujarat's Junagadh district, officials aware of the development said.
The Gujarat forest department has allocated 20.24 hectares in New Pipaliya for the facility, with boundary wall construction already underway. The Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change, with the Central Zoo Authority as nodal agency, aims to create this centre to improve the ability to track diseases among wildlife, especially in the context of pathogens that can jump to humans - a process known as zoonosis, one of these officials said.
"Wildlife health is an important and often over...