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A 12-year-old boy was attacked and killed by an Asiatic lion near the foothills of the revered Girnar shrine in Junagadh district in the early hours of Saturday, marking the sixth such attack in the past 25 days.

The incident, which unfolded on one of Gujarat's popular pilgrimage routes has caused widespread panic among devotees. It has also triggered intense criticism over the lack of security measures and lighting along the pathway.

The victim, identified as a resident of Modaj village in Mehmedabad taluka of Kheda district, had arrived in Girnar with his family for darshan when the horrifying attack unfolded just after they began climbing the famous staircase leading to the hill shrine.

The victim's uncle, Chauhan Anil Kumar, recounted the sequence of events.

"We had started climbing Girnar early in the morning with our family. After crossing nearly 50 steps inside the entrance gate, a lion suddenly emerged from the darkness and attacked my nephew from behind. Before anyone could understand what had happened, it grabbed him by his hand and dragged him into the forest,"he said.

Following a frantic search operation launched by traumatised family members, local police, and forest trackers, the mutilated remains of the child, along with his clothes and shoes, were recovered from a nearby ravine inside the forest area.

"There is no proper lighting on the staircase. If a wild animal is sitting in the darkness, pilgrims have no way of seeing it. The administration must immediately install lighting throughout the route and deploy forest personnel at regular intervals to prevent such tragedies," he said.

As news of the attack spread, a massive combing operation was launched in the Girnar foothills by veterinary experts, trackers, and forest officials.

A male lion suspected of the attack was captured during the operation. Preliminary medical examinations pointed to the animal's involvement as human body parts were found in its vomit. The lion was subsequently shifted to a facility for further forensic evaluation.

As a precautionary measure, the forest department caught two other male lions from the nearby Bhavnath forest area and shifted them to the Sakkarbaug Zoo for behavioural observation while installing cages around the attack site.

The incident has sparked anger over safety protocols on one of the state's most heavily frequented pilgrimage trails.

The attack came just days after a 21-year-old youth was mauled to death after entering a restricted forest zone in the Amreli district during an excursion on Wednesday. Just days earlier, on July 6, a cattle herder sustained severe neck and shoulder injuries after a lion ambushed him while he was feeding his livestock at Gariyadhar in the Bhavnagar district.

Similar attacks claimed the lives of at least two people, including a five-year-old child, in the Amreli and Bhavnagar districts in June.