India’s Asiatic lion population has increased by over a third to 891, according to a five-yearly census released on Wednesday, boosting efforts to conserve the vulnerable species.The Asiatic lion — which historically once roamed from the Middle East to India — is now reduced to an isolated population in a wildlife sanctuary in India’s western state of Gujarat.”The Asiatic lion population, which was 304 in 1995, has increased steadily over the past three decades,” Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel told reporters. “In 2020 it was 674, which has now increased to 891.”The majestic big cats are slightly smaller than their African cousins, and have a fold of skin along their bellies.Hunting and human encroachment caused the population to plunge to just 20 by 1913, and the lions are now found only in Gujarat’s sprawling Gir wildlife sanctuary, where they roam dry deciduous forests and open grasslands.Following years of concerted government efforts, the lion population is steadily rising.The latest counting exercise, spread over four days, covered over 35,000 square kilometres (13,513 square miles) across 11 districts in the state.Priyavrat Gadhvi, a former member of the state wildlife board, said the increase indicated a successful conservation programme.”Another important factor here is the political will and support of the local people living near the forest areas,” Gadhvi said. “They together have helped in conservation of the species.”But while numbers are rising, the conservation organisation WWF warns that the Asiatic lion faces a “threat of genetic inbreeding arising from a single population in one place”.Lions are a source of pride for India, particularly in Gujarat’s Saurashtra region, where man and beast coexist.A cattle-rearing tribe lives among the animals in the sanctuary, and it is not uncommon to see a pride of lions crossing a highway in the region as motorists wait and watch. Lions are also a major tourist attraction, along with leopards, panthers and other big cats found in the sanctuary.Around 550,000 people visit the wildlife park each year, riding in open-top jeeps as they try to spot the predators prowling.Since the Asiatic lion currently exists as a single subpopulation, it is vulnerable to extinction from events such as an epidemic or a large forest fire.

A British team of veteran ex-special forces soldiers summited Everest on Wednesday, expedition organisers said, in a bid to fly from London, climb the highest peak and return home within seven days.Four men including government minister Alistair Carns left London on Friday pre-acclimatised to the low oxygen at high altitudes — including using xenon gas, a method that raised eyebrows in the mountaineering community.The men, who slept in special low-oxygen tents before departure from Britain, are raising funds for veterans’ charities.”All four of them, along with a photographer and five Sherpa team reached the summit this morning at 7:10 am,” expedition organiser Lukas Furtenbach, of Austria-based Furtenbach Adventures, told AFP.The team, which also includes Garth Miller, Anthony Stazicker and Kevin Godlington, are now descending from the 8,849-metre (29,000-foot) peak.”They will descend to the base camp by evening and weather permitting will be back home within seven days,” Furtenbach said.The team is raising money for children whose parents were killed in conflict.”I’ve seen, on multiple operations in Afghanistan, individuals who haven’t returned,” Carns, 45, who carried out five tours of Afghanistan, said before his departure.Carns, a colonel in the Royal Marine Reserves, is the most highly decorated British lawmaker since World War II.- ‘Climb higher faster’ -The men are not the fastest to ascend Everest — that record is held by Nepali climber Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa, who climbed from base camp to the summit in 10 hours and 56 minutes in 2003.But expedition leader Miller, a commercial airline pilot, said it was a “new way of climbing 8,000-metre peaks”.Speaking before the ascent, he said they used “the latest sports science” to hone their physical preparation to allow them to “climb higher faster”.For decades the dream of reaching the summit of Mount Everest has required at least two months on the mountain doing a series of acclimatisation rotations.But the team took a different route, heading directly to Everest’s base camp on Saturday by helicopter, straight after arriving from London.Areas above 8,000 metres are known as the “death zone” because thin air and low oxygen levels heighten the risk of altitude sickness.They pre-acclimatised at home using hypoxic tents and special training techniques, before being administered xenon gas two weeks before departure.The World Anti-Doping Agency banned the use of xenon in 2014, saying it could illegally enhance the performance of athletes.- Criticism -Furtenbach said xenon allows faster climbs and decreases the risk of altitude sickness.”I was looking for new ways of acclimatising,” Furtenbach told AFP.Inhaling the gas prompts the production of the hormone erythropoietin (EPO) in the body, which encourages the formation of oxygen-carrying red blood cells to improve performance.”You can say that xenon inhalation mimics the effects of a classical rotation to high altitude,” said Michael Fries, a German doctor who works with Furtenbach.In January the medical commission at the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation -– the umbrella group for mountaineering organisations -– cautioned against using xenon.”There is no evidence that breathing in xenon improves performance in the mountains and inappropriate use can be dangerous,” it said.It also comes at a financial cost, with the climb costing an estimated $170,000 per person, according to Furtenbach, several times higher than the slower expeditions. Some have been critical of the use of xenon.”Mostly I view it as a stunt,” said Adrian Ballinger, who runs US-based Alpenglow Expeditions, a company that has worked to develop accelerated acclimatisation methods.”To me, those things take away from what makes climbing Mount Everest unique, which is the unknown outcome and the fact that each person on the mountain is pushed to their emotional, physical and mental limits.”Furtenbach, who has tested the gas on mountain climbs since 2020, said he hoped that the expedition would help normalise xenon to become “part of a standard safety protocol for high-altitude mountaineering”.