Context

• Four male and four female African cheetahs will be imported from Namibia, and another 12 from South Africa, starting in August 2022.
• These cheetahs are meant for soft release in a compartmentalised enclosure (500 hectare) ready at Kuno National Park (carrying capacity of 21 cheetahs) in Madhya Pradesh to establish the cheetah into its “historical range”.
• Recently, the Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has also launched the ‘Action Plan for Introduction of Cheetah in India’ under which 50 of these big cats will be introduced in the next five years, with help from the Wildlife Institute of India and the Wildlife Trust of India.

Background                                    

• In May 2012, the Supreme Court had stalled the plan to initiate the foreign cheetahs into the Palpur Kino sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh citing following reasons:
  • Cheetahs may come into conflict with a parallel and a much-delayed project to reintroduce lions into the same sanctuary.
  • Whether the African cheetahs would find the sanctuary a favourable clime as far as abundance of prey is concerned.
• In 2021, the Supreme Courtfinally lifted its seven-year-long stay to introduce African Cheetahs from Namibia into the Indian habitat.

Few Facts

• The cheetah is one of the oldest of the big cat species, with ancestors that can be traced back more than five million years to the Miocene era.
• Namibia has the world’s largest population of cheetahs. The cheetah is also the world’s fastest land mammal that lives in Africa and Asia.
• In 1952, the Indian government officially declared the Cheetah extinct in the country.
• The cheetah is the only large carnivore to have gone extinct in India, primarily due to hunting and habitat loss.
• The Asiatic cheetah is a critically endangered species surviving only in Iran and African Cheetah is vulnerable on IUCN Red List.

Target milestones

• Short-term target: If all goes well, the cheetah population should reach its limit of 21 within Kuno in about 15 years.
• Long-term vision: Once the greater Kuno landscape is secured and restored, the largest population is projected to go up to 36 cheetahs in 30-40 years.
• Small cheetah reserves: During this period, a few other smaller cheetah reserves will be created in Rajasthan and elsewhere in MP.
• New supply: For at least five years and up to 10 years, fresh supply of cheetahs will continue from Africa.

Mode of introduction

• Phased releases: Once cheetahs arrive in Kuno, the plan is to keep male coalitions (groups) and individual females in separate but adjoining compartments “so that they are able to know each other” before release.
• Strategy of cold release: Under this, the cheetahs would be kept in an enclosure called a boma and prey will be released into this enclosure for cheetahs to catch. This will ensure that the animals get accustomed to hunting Indian prey species before their release.
• Tracking: Radio-collared male coalitions will be released first and females will be released 1-4 weeks after the males, depending on how the males settle down in the new environment.
• Unsuited habitat: If any animal tends to get into an undesirable environment, it will be brought back.
• Avoiding man-animal conflict: The hard boundaries of Kuno National Park adjoining human habitation will be secured through proper fencing, if needed, at least during the initial years.

Concerns of Cheetah introduction project

• Remote patches: The project’s Population Viability Analysis has shown “high probability of long-term cheetah persistence” within populations that exceed 50
  • Hence, creating and maintaining a few small “island populations” is not quite the same as the popular idea of bringing back the cheetah that once roamed free in the Indian wild.
• Inter-connectedness: The biggest challenge facing conservation in India is how to maintain habitat connectivity that keeps meta-populations self-sufficient (genetically viable) to perform their ecological roles.
• Human interference: The model that will depend on human intervention for survival effectively reduces protected areas to glorified open zoos.
• Exotic species: In the umbrella-approach of conservation, multiple species in a forest (tiger reserve, for instance) are protected in the name of a flagship species (i.e. tiger).
  • However, there has been no justification, though, as to why one must introduce an exotic replacement for an extinct species to save indigenous species.
• Inter-species conflict: The cheetah project also promises to benefit endangered grassland species, such as the endangered Indian wolf and the near-extinct great Indian bustard (GIB). However, there are a few contradictions in this approach as follows:
  • Wolves, for example, are the keystone species in Nauradehi sanctuary (MP) and would have to compete with cheetahs.
  • The majestic GIB is a potential prey for the cheetah. The project excluded Jaisalmer’s Desert National Park because “putting the cheetah in with the bustard cannot be contemplated at all, because of the threat to the most gravely endangered bird.
• Kuno’s existing leopard population could pose a threat to cheetah cubs.
• Misplaced conservation priorities: The move to introduce Cheetah and not lion in Kuno National park is not about competing interests of two wild species but showcase India’s distorted conservation priorities.
  • Critics caution that India’s conservation priority should be saving what can still be saved and the longing to relive the cheetah’s past should not jeopardise the lion’s future.
• Wilful Contempt: Many conservationists are agitated by what they term “wilful contempt of the Supreme Court” that in April 2013 set a six-month deadline for shifting lions to Kuno National park.
  • The Gujarat government has been blamed to refuse sharing lions even after its review and curative petitions were dismissed by the SC.

Way forward

• The detailed analysis on animals’ lineage and condition should be checked in the host country to ensure that they are not from an excessively inbred stock and are in the ideal age group, so as to conform to the needs of a founding population.
• As per experts, any experiment to build wild population, must have compelling conservation imperatives, such as building a backup stock of Asiatic lions, long isolated in Gir national park where epidemics or natural calamities may send them the cheetah way.