Call of the Gir

A lion enthusiast from a young age, Parimal Nathwani crafted and articulated his passion for lions even after assuming larger responsibilities in RIL and becoming a Rajya Sabha member in 2008. In fact, he became more vocal in the house and beyond. He has been a part of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Environment, Forests & Climate Change for 13 years and has led the committee’s visits to Gir in January 2017 and May 2022.

Nathwani as the Director-Corporate Affairs at Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), has successfully accomplished various projects including land acquisition for the Jamnagar Mega Complex, the establishment of retail outlets, cross-country pipelines and optical fibre cable networks. Additionally, he has steered part of CSR activities towards Gir and its lions.

Noticing lion-cub fatalities around Gir, he earlier got constructed parapets over 1,294 open wells in the periphery of Gir. With substantial increase in lion population, he recently committed to cover an additional 2,000 wells out of which, parapets for 1,150 wells have been completed, and work is ongoing for the others. He has also committed to establishing three fully equipped hospitals in Gir and Greater Gir for wildlife treatment.

Nathwani is a member of the Advisory Committee of Gir Sanctuary & National Park, Government of Gujarat, and has been visiting Gir since his youth. He is the founder-director of the GEET Foundation, an NGO that promotes environmental and ecological tourism in Gir. In 2018, he authored “Gir Lion: Pride of Gujarat”, focusing on the conservation of Gir lions.