One of the 17 lions, captured last month for killing three persons near the Gir sanctuary, has been identified as a 'man-eater' and shifted to the Sakkarbaug Zoo in Gujarat.

"A man was killed by a pride of 15 lions. We captured one and found it to be a man-eater. We have now sent the lion to Sakkarbaug Zoo. We have decided to capture the entire pride and shift them. Till now, we have captured 13 lions and kept them in a rescue centre. A scat analysis will be conducted there," AP Singh, Chief Conservator of Forest (Junagadh division) told ANI.

He further said that out of the 17 lions captured by them last month, one was a male adult, and it turned out to be the main culprit.

"We found considerable amount of human remains in that lion's faeces, while very small amount was found from the faeces of two sub-adult females. It brought us to the conclusion that the male lion attacked, killed and ate humans, while two other sub-adults only ate some leftover body parts. These sub-adults were not involved in attacking and killing humans, as they only ate the leftover parts," said Singh.

Singh added the male lion would be kept in a cage at the zoo for its entire life on the outskirts of Junagadh city, while the two lionesses would be kept locked in any of forest department?s rescue centre.

"All the three lions have to spend their lives in captivity now. The other 16 lions of the pride, including several cubs, will be released in the (Gir) sanctuary. As a precaution, they will be released in deeper pockets of the sanctuary, far away from where they were captured," he said.

The pride of 17 lions was caged last month outside the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary in Dhari taluka of Amreli district, on the border of the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary.

A major portion of the Gir sanctuary falls in the adjoining Junagadh district and Dhari taluka lies on the border of the sanctuary.

The forest department had started the drive to cage the lions after three persons - a 14-year-old boy, a woman aged around 50 and a 61-year-old man - were mauled to death by the felines in the same region in April and May.

Prior to these incidents, the man-lion conflict was rare in and around Gir, the only abode of Asiatic lions where there are around 523 lions, as per the last census.

These incidents sparked anger among the locals, who along with some political leaders, including former Amreli MLA Dilip Sanghani, demanded action against the man-eater lions.