Ask most travellers where to see wild lions and they will name a country in Africa. The other answer is a teak and thorn forest on the Saurashtra peninsula of western India, where the Asiatic lion, a population that had dwindled to a handful by the start of the twentieth century, now survives in the wild and nowhere else. Gir National Park and Sanctuary, run from the small village of Sasan in Gujarat, is where you go to see them, and it is a very different proposition from a classic savannah safari: shorter drives, strictly allocated routes, a government permit system and lions that often appear on a forest track rather than across open grassland.

That makes planning less about which lodge to book and more about a handful of practical decisions: which season suits you, how the official e-permit works and what it leaves out, whether to rely on the open-forest Gir Jungle Safari or the fenced Devalia park, and how to fit Gir into a wider trip around Gujarat. Seasons, slot times and fees below are as checked in October 2026, and each is linked to the forest department's own pages so you can confirm before you go.

Why Gir is unlike any other lion safari

The Asiatic lion is a little smaller than its African relatives, the males usually carry a sparser mane that leaves the ears visible, and many show a fold of skin running along the belly. More important for visitors is its range. Hunting and habitat loss erased lions from the Middle East and most of India, and the last animals held on in the Gir forest under the protection of the Nawabs of Junagadh, the region's former rulers, and later of the state (Live History India tells the story). Today the forest department describes the Gir ecosystem as having pulled the species back from the brink, and the numbers support that.

Gujarat's 16th lion census, conducted on 10–13 May 2025 across about 35,000 square kilometres of Saurashtra, estimated 891 Asiatic lions, up from 674 in 2020; 384 were recorded inside Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary and 507 beyond its boundaries. [5]

Two things follow from those figures. First, Gir is not the only place lions live any more: satellite populations now range across eleven districts, including coastal and farmland areas, and the census announcement named smaller sanctuaries such as Girnar, Pania, Mitiyala and Barda. Second, the protected core remains the only place where visitors can reliably and legally go looking for them on a guided safari. The forest itself is part of the draw. The official site lists 41 mammal species, 47 reptiles and more than 300 resident and migratory birds, so a drive here can just as easily turn up leopard, sambar, chital or nilgai, or a long list of birds, as a lion.

Expectations matter. Compared with a game drive in the Masai Mara, a Gir safari is brief, confined to set routes and conducted in a small open vehicle among trees, so views are often close but framed by branches. The forest department's own advice for visitors ends on a sensible note: if you do not see a big cat, enjoy the landscape and the rest of the wildlife. Most visitors book two or three drives to give themselves several chances.

When to go: the season, the slots and the trade-offs

Gir's calendar is set by the monsoon. Under the official schedule the Gir Jungle Safari closes every year from 16 June to 15 October, when rain makes the forest tracks impassable, and the season runs from mid-October to mid-June. The calendar is not entirely fixed, though: in 2026 the forest department opened the season a week early, on 9 October, according to Bhaskar English. Treat the official dates as the rule and check the booking site for the current year's opening.

As checked in October 2026, the official Gir Jungle Safari timetable runs winter slots (16 October to the end of February) of 6:30–9:30, 9:00–12:00 and 15:00–18:00, and summer slots (1 March to 15 June) of 6:00–9:00, 9:00–12:00 and 16:00–19:00, every day of the week; the safari is closed each year from 16 June to 15 October. [2]

Each window has a character. Late October and November follow the rains, so the forest is green, the air is clear and the light is soft, but the undergrowth is thick and the animals are spread out because water is everywhere. December to February brings cool mornings that can feel genuinely cold in an open vehicle, the most comfortable days and the busiest permit calendar, especially over Diwali, Christmas and the New Year. From March the teak sheds its leaves, the forest thins and wildlife concentrates around the remaining water, which tends to help sightings; the price is heat that climbs steadily towards June. If seeing lions matters more than comfort, March to May is the stronger bet. If you want the forest at its most attractive and can accept more variable sightings, aim for November to February.

Choose the slot as carefully as the month. The first morning drive and the late-afternoon drive coincide with the hours when lions are most likely to be on the move; the mid-morning 9:00–12:00 slot is often quieter for cats, though it is easier to book and pleasant in winter.

Permits: one official site, and what the e-permit does not cover

Every safari permit for Gir is issued online through the Gujarat Forest Department's Gir Online Permit Booking System, which describes itself as the only official booking website. That claim matters, because search results are crowded with lookalike agency sites that resell permits at a mark-up or simply take a deposit. An agency can legitimately arrange vehicles and hotels around a permit, but if you want to book the permit yourself, use the government site and nothing else.

The official booking terms state that one e-permit covers a maximum of six adults plus one child aged 3–12, for one time slot on one route; online booking opens three months before the visit date; guide and safari-vehicle charges are not included and are paid separately; and each visitor must carry original photo identification, which for foreign visitors means their passport. [1]

In practice, the process runs like this. You choose the date, the slot and the number of visitors, enter each person's name and identity document details exactly as they appear on that document, and pay online. Only the people registered on it may ride in the vehicle, and bookings with incorrect ID details are void without a refund. On the day, you report to the reception centre at Sinh Sadan in Sasan before your slot (the booking terms ask for 30 minutes), where an eco-guide is allocated at random, you hire one of the registered gypsies (open four-wheel-drive vehicles) waiting there, and the route is assigned from your permit number. Arrive late and the permit is cancelled.

Because a permit covers up to six people, couples and solo travellers sometimes join others to share a vehicle. That is easiest to arrange through your hotel in Sasan, which also handles the logistics of the vehicle and guide. Everyone in the group must still appear on the permit with their own ID details at the time of booking.

Gir Jungle Safari or Devalia: choosing the right experience

Gir offers two quite different ways to see lions, and many visitors do both. The Gir Jungle Safari is the real thing: three hours on a designated route through the open sanctuary, where nothing is guaranteed and sightings depend on luck, the guide's skill and the season. Devalia Safari Park, formally the Gir Interpretation Zone, about 13 kilometres from Sasan, is a fenced enclosure of 412 hectares designed as a miniature version of Gir, with representative forest, lions and other wildlife, including leopards shown in a moated area. It runs short tours on three routes, in forest department minibuses from the Devalia reception or in gypsies with eco-guides from Sinh Sadan.

Devalia is meant as a small-scale version of the Gir forest, showing its typical wildlife and habitats so that visitors can understand why the ecosystem deserves protection, and lions can often be seen there within a short time.

— Paraphrased from the Gujarat Forest Department's description of Devalia Safari Park on the official Gir booking site

The choice is about purpose. If you have only one session, have young children or are visiting at short notice, Devalia offers a high chance of seeing a lion in under an hour, and it is a sensible fallback when jungle safari permits have sold out; as checked in October 2026, its gypsy permits can also be bought at the counter if any remain. If you want the experience of tracking a wild animal through forest, book the jungle safari and accept the uncertainty. Devalia also books out: at the start of the 2026 season its opening-day permits were reported by Gujarat Samachar to have sold out more than a week in advance, while many jungle safari permits went unclaimed. The official site lists Wednesday as Devalia's weekly closing day; confirm this before you plan around it.

Getting there and where to stay around Sasan

Sasan Gir sits in the south of the Saurashtra peninsula, a long way from India's main tourist circuits, so most of the journey is the last leg. According to the official visitor information, the nearest airport is Keshod, about 60 kilometres away, with Diu around 100 kilometres; Rajkot, at roughly 160 kilometres, and Ahmedabad, about 370 kilometres away, are the better-connected options. Sasan has its own railway station on the slow line between Junagadh and Veraval, which are 60 and 45 kilometres from the park respectively and are both linked to Ahmedabad and Rajkot by rail, with taxis and buses onwards to Sasan. For most visitors, the simplest plan is to fly to Rajkot or Diu, or take the train to Junagadh, then hire a car and driver for the final stretch.

Sasan itself is a small village strung along the road beside the park entrance, and almost everything is within a short drive of the Sinh Sadan reception centre, which matters when your first slot starts at 6:30. Accommodation ranges from the forest department's guest house at Sinh Sadan, whose campus also holds the Gir orientation centre, to family-run guesthouses and a band of mid-range and upmarket resorts along the roads around the village. The main thing to check is the transfer time to Sinh Sadan before dawn. Book early for the winter holidays, and plan on at least two nights, enough for three or four drives.

Responsible viewing: the rules and why they exist

Gir's rules are short and taken seriously, and your guide is responsible for enforcing them. The forest department's official do's and don'ts ask visitors to keep their distance, stay quiet and never leave the vehicle. They also ban spotlights, honking, music, feeding animals, smoking, alcohol and plastic inside the forest. A lion resting beside the track may look relaxed, but it is a wild predator, and people outside the park live alongside these animals every day. The approach here is to observe quietly and move on.

  • Wear muted forest colours such as khaki, olive, brown or beige, as the forest department advises, and avoid red, yellow, orange and bright white; add a scarf against the dust and a warm layer for winter mornings.
  • Stay seated and inside the vehicle at all times, even if a lion walks up to it, and follow the guide's instructions without argument.
  • Keep voices low and switch off camera flashes; ask your driver not to crowd a sighting or block an animal's path.
  • Carry nothing plastic into the forest and bring every scrap of litter back out with you.
  • Refuse any offer of a lion sighting outside the official safaris: illegal baited 'lion shows' in the Gir area have led to criminal cases.

Building Gir into a wider trip

Gir pairs naturally with the rest of Saurashtra. The Shree Somnath temple on the coast, revered as the first of the twelve jyotirlingas of Shiva, is roughly 60 kilometres from Sasan. Gujarat Tourism lists its visiting hours as 6:30 to 21:00 and recommends October to February for a visit, so a morning safari and an evening at the temple is an easy day. Junagadh, beneath the temple-topped hill of Girnar, lies about 60 kilometres north. Diu, on the coast to the south-east, makes a relaxed end to the loop.

For a wider India wildlife trip, the timing works neatly. The core zones of central India's tiger reserves reopen around 1 October each year, while Gir usually follows in mid-October. A roundup of the 2026 reopenings noted that Bandhavgarh, Kanha and Ranthambore's main zones opened on 1 October, and Gir's announced date was 16 October before it moved forward. That makes a combined autumn or winter itinerary straightforward to plan, although the long distances usually mean flying between regions rather than driving.

Gir also fits well with western India's other highlights. Ahmedabad's old city is the natural entry point, and Rajasthan is a short flight away. If you are adding forts and palaces to your lion safaris, our guide to planning a trip to Jaipur covers the same October-to-March season and the practicalities of travelling between India's regions.

Sources & further reading

  1. 1. Gir Online Permit Booking System (Gujarat Forest Department / GSLCS) — Terms & Conditions
  2. 2. Gir Online Permit Booking System — About Gir Jungle Safari: seasons, timings, permits and access
  3. 3. Gir Online Permit Booking System — Devalia Safari Park (Gir Interpretation Zone)
  4. 4. Gir Online Permit Booking System — Do's & Don'ts for visitors
  5. 5. Down To Earth — Asiatic lion population in Gujarat rises from 674 to 891 in five years (May 2025)
  6. 6. Ahmedabad Mirror — Gir safari cost likely to more than double (31 August 2026)
  7. 7. Bhaskar English — Lion sightings begin in Sasan-Gir: safari season opens on 9 October 2026
  8. 8. Gujarat Tourism (official) — Shree Somnath Jyotirlinga Temple