© 2026 NPR Illinois
For your right to be curious.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
NPR Illinois is seeking a full-time multimedia journalist to co-host/produce/edit/report for a new daily, regional radio news hour with Sean Crawford. Click to apply.

India’s Tiny Community Of Wild Asian Lions

A female Asiatic lion in the Gir forest. (Rupal Vaidya/Wikimedia Commons)
A female Asiatic lion in the Gir forest. (Rupal Vaidya/Wikimedia Commons)

The Modi government in India is considering a proposal to replace the tiger – the iconic symbol of India since the 1970s – with the lion. Vicki Croke of WBUR’s The Wild Life joins Here & Now hosts Robin Young and Jeremy Hobson with details on the tiny community of wild Asian lions – a remnant of a once much larger population.

[Youtube]

Correction: In this interview, we incorrectly identified the zoo where a lion recently died. Christopher the lion died at Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, not Stone Zoo in Stoneham, Mass. We regret the error.

Guest

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.