New Delhi: Emphasising that there must be an arrangement that works as a life insurance for lions, well-known wildlife activist Ravi Chellam said that it was "necessary" to have an alternative living arena for the lions.

Mr Chellam was speaking with regards to the floods in Gujarat that left 11 lions dead, in addition to 1,600 blue bulls and nearly 50 spotted deers. "A natural catastrophe like this which has killed so many lions and other wild animals doesn’t come with a warning. It does not tell you I will strike at 9am tomorrow," he was reported saying in TheDaily Mail, and added, "like human beings there should be a life insurance for the wild animals for a catastrophe.”

A survey has begun to find more carcasses of dead animals and going by the figures so far, the number has come down to 511, from 523 with 11 deaths in the floods while the survey is still ongoing.

Meanwhile, in addition to the floods, there have also been more cases of lions becoming victims of human activities, such as the frequent accidental cases of lion deaths due to goods trains passing through Amreli, as well as from trucks hitting the animals in Bhavnagar, raking up the issue of shifting a section of lions to the Kuno Palpur sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh.

The proposal to shift some lions had triggered a long row which had ended in April 2013, with the SC ruling that some of them be relocated to the sanctuary in MP.