Rajkot: Stray animals on Indian roads present an unremarkable sight. But early on Tuesday morning, Junagadh resident Mrunal Joshi saw a bevy of beasts of an order that was royally different from the usual urban menagerie of stray dogs and loitering cattle.
Joshi woke up to the astounding sight of nine Asiatic lions sauntering through an inhabited road of the town. A pride of three lionesses and cubs had ventured nearly 3.5 km inside Junagadh on a four-lane road which falls in ward number 1 of the municipal corporation.
Joshi, who lives near Girnar Darwaza, spotted the lions at around 2:30 am when he got up to relieve himself. “I couldn’t believe my eyes – so many lions were walking on the road right outside my house,” Joshi told TOI. He captured the extraordinary ‘cat video’ from his third-floor balcony.
The areas that the lions toured on Tuesday are heavily populated and crammed with houses, schools, a hospital, and other buildings.
