70 years after huge cat’s extinction, India prepares to welcome cheetahs from Africa

Nearly 70 years after the cheetah was declared regionally extinct or extirpated, India will obtain its first batch of the massive cats from Africa by the tip of this yr. Within per week’s time, two skilled groups — one from Namibia and the opposite from South Africa — the 2 international locations with the best cheetah populations on this planet, will arrive to coach Indian forest officers and wildlife consultants on dealing with, breeding, rehabilitation, medical therapy and conservation of the animals. This is the primary time on this planet that a big carnivore shall be relocated from one continent to a different.
The animal is believed to have disappeared from the nation when Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of Koriya hunted and shot the final three recorded Asiatic cheetahs in India in 1947. It was declared extinct by the federal government in 1952.
While the present relocation try started in 2009, it is just final yr that the Supreme Court gave the inexperienced sign to the Centre.

An skilled committee arrange by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change below the chairmanship of Wildlife Trust of India board member and former Director Wildlife of the Indian Government, Dr M Okay Ranjitsinh, together with members of the Wildlife Institute of India, WWF, NTCA and officers from the Centre and states, have accomplished an evaluation of the websites for relocation.
Six websites, which had beforehand been assessed in 2010, have now been re-assessed by WII — Mukundara Hills Tiger Reserve and Shergarh Wildlife Sanctuary in Rajasthan and Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary, Kuno National Park, Madhav National Park and Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh.
Of these, the skilled committee has recognized Kuno National Park as being prepared for the relocation. The web site has been monitored since 2006 because it had additionally been recognized for relocating the Asiatic Lion. Both animals share the identical habitat — semi-arid grasslands that stretch throughout Gujarat-Rajasthan-Madhya Pradesh.
“While there was never any problem with cheetahs and lions sharing the same space, the Supreme Court felt at the time this was not conducive to the lion. The court had instructed that the lion be introduced at Kuno in 2013; that is yet to happen. Last year, the Supreme Court gave the go ahead to introduce cheetahs here. But one site is not enough for a healthy population of cheetahs in the country. So, we will upgrade the other identified sites, which have conducive habitats, so it can be introduced in four-five places at least over the coming five or six years. But this year, we will relocate eight cheetahs to Kuno to begin with. The idea is to relocate 35-40 cheetahs across the identified sites,” stated Dr Y V Jhala, the WII Dean and skilled committee member.
The upgradation of web sites requires sizable investments to relocate villages, management grazing of goats and cattle, and increase prey for the cheetah via translocation of blackbuck, chital, chinkara, wild boar, and so on.
In Kuno National Park, due to the lion relocation undertaking, the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department had already relocated quite a few villages and declared it a ‘national park’, which led to “remarkable recovery in its habitat, prey abundance and reduction of human impacts”, states the evaluation carried out by WII earlier this yr.
The Park spans throughout 261 sq. kilometres and is part of the Kuno wildlife division with an space of 1,235 sq. kilometres. It has a wholesome inhabitants of chital, sambar, nilgai, wild pig, chinkara and cattle. Currently, the leopard and striped hyena are the one bigger carnivores throughout the National Park, with the lone tiger having returned to Ranthambore earlier this yr.
“Kuno National Park is currently ready for reintroduction of cheetah with minimal actions required,” says the WII evaluation, including that Gandhi Sagar-Chittorgarh-Bhainsrorgarh wildlife sanctuaries additionally “adequately” meet the factors.
This isn’t the primary time that India has tried a relocation of the cheetah. In the early Seventies, Dr M Okay Ranjitsinh carried out negotiations with Iran on behalf of the Indira Gandhi administration.
“Indira Gandhi was very keen on bringing back the cheetah. The negotiations went well and Iran promised us the cheetah, but our potential release sites needed to be upgraded with an increase in prey base and greater protection. Moreover, during the process, the Emergency was declared in the country and soon after the Shah of Iran fell,” Dr Ranjitsinh stated.
While the Persian cheetah was most popular for relocation, being Asiatic, that is not potential because the cheetah inhabitants in Iran has dwindled to below 50.

“As a flagship species, the conservation of the cheetah will revive grasslands and its biomes and habitat, much like Project Tiger has done for forests and all the species that have seen their numbers go up. While there is a lot of emphasis on preservation of forests, grasslands are a hugely neglected habitat in the country — we have a forest policy but not grasslands policy. And yet, the largest number of Schedule I protected animals under the Wildlife Protection Act reside in these grasslands. Endangered species like the caracal will fall under the flagship cheetah project and will be conserved in turn,” he added.
While over-hunting was an enormous contributing issue for the cheetah going extinct, Dr Ranjitsinh additionally pointed to the decimation of its comparatively slim prey base and the lack of its grassland-forest habitats. With India’s emphasis on agriculture on the time of Independence, buying and parcelling off grasslands for agriculture led to its decline, he stated.