  We report the orbital decay rate of the high mass X-ray binary GX 301$-$2
from an analysis of its long-term X-ray light curves and pulsed flux histories
from CGRO/BATSE, RXTE/ASM, Swift/BAT, Fermi/GBM and MAXI by timing the
pre-periastron flares over a span of almost 30 years. The time of arrival of
the pre-periastron flares exhibits an energy dependence (hard lag) and the
orbital period decay was estimated after correcting for it. This method of
orbital decay estimation is unaffected by the fluctuations in the spin rate of
the X-ray pulsar associated with variations in the mass accretion rate. The
resulting $\dot P_\textrm{orb}$ $=-(1.98\pm0.28)\times10^{-6}$ s s$^{-1}$
indicates a rapid evolution timescale of $|P_\textrm{orb}/\dot
P_\textrm{orb}|\sim 0.6\times10^{5}$ yr, making it the high mass X-ray binary
with the fastest orbital decay. Our estimate of $\dot P_\mathrm{orb}$ is off by
a factor of $\sim2$ from the previously reported value of
$-(3.7\pm0.5)\times10^{-6}$ s s$^{-1}$ estimated from pulsar TOA analysis. We
discuss various possible mechanisms that could drive this rapid orbital decay
and also suggest that GX 301$-$2 is a prospective Thorne-\.{Z}ytkow candidate.
