advantages including being in tune with international guidelines. The continued reluctance of the state to part with lions for translocation has come under criticism from prominent environmentalists. Post the verdict, fears have been voiced by Gujarati environmentalists over the gun culture of Madhya Pradesh and number of firearms in Sheopur, the region where the Kuno Palpur sanctuary is located and it is suggested that translocation to such an area would be in violation of IUCN norms on the subject. With the release of IUCN guidelines on translocation, opponents of the project have cited from the provisions and also claimed that the history of translocations especially in India is dismal and hence translocation is not favoured. The natural spread of over-populated lions from an original range of over to an area extending over , is considered to mitigate against the risk of epidemic disease. 2014 The Gujarat government's curative petition against relocation of the wild Asiatic lions from the Gir Forest to Madhya Pradesh was dismissed by the Supreme Court on 14 August 2014. In the face of continued opposition, the Madhya Pradesh government is considering an alternate plan to release zoo-bred lions from Hyderabad and Sakkarbaug, a move which has been criticised in the light of the deaths of two newly translocated zoo-bred lions in the safari park at Etawah, Uttar Pradesh. After the dismissal of the Gujarat State petition, two NGOs from Gujarat have filed separate petitions against the translocation order, one on the grounds that certain relevant facts have not been brought to the notice of the apex court, the other stating that the importance of Kuno-Palpur as a corridor for migrating tigers between Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan and Madhav National Park in Madhya Pradesh had been downplayed. 2017 As of December 2017, Madhya Pradesh still has not received lions from Gujarat. For this reason, it may have given up on trying to acquire them. 2018 As of October 2018, the lions were still in Gujarat, and 23 of them were found dead. 4 of them had died of canine distemper virus, which killed 1,000 East African lions in the Serengeti ecoregion. Translocation plan within Gujarat The plan is to reintroduce a pride or two of wild, free-ranging Asiatic lions from Gir Forest in the neighboring Indian state of Gujarat to start with. In compliance with the Supreme Court order of 15 April 2013, the Ministry of