Cheetahs to return to India next week: Risks and opportunities

India

oi-PTI

New
Delhi,
Aug
07:
The
planned
introduction
of
South
African
and
Namibian
cheetahs
into
Indian
wildlife
reserves,
said
to
be
the
first-of-its-kind
project
in
the
world
to
move
a
large
carnivore
from
one
continent
to
another
and
put
it
in
the
wild,
poses
both
challenges
and
unique
research
opportunities,
according
to
a
leading
South
African
expert.

Professor
Adrian
Tordiffe
of
the
University
of
Pretoria
has
been
closely
involved
with
the
ambitious
plan
to
send
12
cheetahs
from
South
Africa,
as
well
as
an
unknown
number
from
neighbouring
Namibia
to
India
to
mark
the
75th
anniversary
of
independence
on
August
15.

The
group
of
cheetahs
will
be
introduced
in
Madhya
Pradesh
and
Rajasthan.

The
professor,
who
has
been
extensively
studying
cheetahs
for
over
two
decades,
said
that
as
soon
as
South
African
President
Cyril
Ramaphosa
signs
a
Memorandum
of
Understanding,
the
majestic
beasts
will
be
transported
the
next
day.

“Getting
the
relevant
CITES
documentation
will
only
take
a
day
more,”
he
said.

Tordiffe
will
travel
to
India
with
the
cheetahs
who
face
trauma
during
translocation.
Last
month,
India
and
Namibia
signed
a
pact
for
the
reintroduction
of
cheetahs,
declared
extinct
in
the
country
in
1952.
According
to
officials,
the
first
batch
comprising
four
male
and
as
many
female
cheetahs
will
arrive
from
Namibia
by
August
15.

Tordiffe
said
South
Africa
plans
to
provide
more
cheetahs
to
India
until
the
population
is
viable.

“I’m
estimating
that
at
least
50
or
60
cheetahs
will
go
to
India
within
the
next
five
or
six
years.
I’m
also
anticipating
that
there
will
be
a
lot
of
collaboration
on
scientific
research
between
ourselves
and
our
Indian
counterparts
to
learn
as
much
as
we
can
from
this
introduction,”
he
said.

“There
have
been
instances
of
other
species
being
introduced
to
other
countries,
such
as
the
European
bison
being
introduced
into
the
UK,
but
this
is
the
first
large
carnivore
that
is
being
introduced
from
one
continent
to
another,”
Tordiffe
said.

Most
of
the
world’s
7,000
cheetahs
live
in
South
Africa,
Namibia
and
Botswana.
Namibia
has
the
world’s
largest
population
of
cheetahs.

The
cheetah
is
the
only
large
carnivore
that
got
completely
wiped
out
from
India,
mainly
due
to
over-hunting
and
habitat
loss.

The
last
spotted
feline
died
in
1948
in
the
Sal
forests
of
Chhattisgarh’s
Koriya
district.

Tordiffe
said
the
Indian
cheetah
became
extinct
in
the
1950s
as
the
species
had
been
hunted
down
because
of
the
bounty
offered
by
the
erstwhile
British
rulers,
who
regarded
them
as
vermin.

‘Extinct’
cheetahs’
homecoming:
India
signs
pact
with
Namibia

The
fastest
land
animal
in
the
world
will
find
a
new
home
in
the
Kuno-Palpur
National
Park
(KNP)
in
Madhya
Pradesh’s
Sheopur
district.

The
park,
originally
developed
to
be
the
second
home
for
Asiatic
lions
in
India
besides
Gir,
was
selected
as
a
habitat
for
the
African
cheetah
by
a
Supreme
Court-mandated
expert
committee
in
January
2021.

Tordiffe
highlighted
the
free
roaming
of
cattle
as
the
biggest
challenge
to
the
introduction
of
the
endangered
cats
in
Madhya
Pradesh
and
Rajasthan.

“It’s
supposed
to
be
a
protected
park,
but
cattle
are
going
in
there.
The
walls
that
are
supposed
to
keep
the
cattle
out
are
broken.
The
real
problem
is
that
there
are
no
real
keystone
species
to
drive
the
conservation
for
those
areas,”
he
said.

“The
local
conservation
officers
I
think
don’t
really
have
any
incentive
to
try
and
keep
the
cattle
or
the
people
out
of
those
areas,”
he
said.

Tordiffe
said
there
was
better
management
of
the
tiger
reserves
in
India.

“If
these
(proposed
cheetah)
areas
are
compared
to
the
tiger
reserves
in
India,
there
are
a
host
of
animals
there
besides
the
tigers.
The
main
reason
you
have
such
diversity
in
those
reserves
is
that
the
cattle
are
kept
out
and
the
people
stay
out
of
the
reserves,
so
you
have
a
low
human
impact
in
those
areas,”
he
said.

Tordiffe,
however,
remained
optimistic
about
the
success
of
the
project.

“I
saw
the
level
of
enthusiasm
of
the
guards
and
the
conservation
people
in
Kuno.
They
are
very
excited
and
they
also
realise
what
responsibilities
are
on
them
to
look
after
these
animals
when
they
arrive
there.
I
think
they
also
realise
the
impact
this
could
have
on
tourism,” he
said.

Tordiffe
explained
that
there
were
two
main
reasons
for
the
project.

“One
is
what
the
cheetah
can
do
for
India
in
those
reserves
in
the
drier
parts
of
the
country
and
how
they
can
drive
the
conservation
of
other
endangered
species
and
how
they
can
protect
the
bushlands
and
the
savannah
in
that
area.”

“The
second
reason
is
what
the
introduction
can
do
for
the
overall
cheetah
conservation
worldwide,
not
just
as
sub-species
in
India.
It’s
worthwhile
taking
a
calculated
risk
here
to
see
just
how
the
project
can
benefit
the
cheetah
population
as
a
whole,”
he
said.

Madhya
Pradesh
park
gears
up
to
welcome
cheetahs

Tordiffe
said
the
concerns
that
the
introduction
of
the
cheetah
into
India
would
bring
new
diseases
to
the
country
or
that
they
would
die
from
diseases
picked
up
in
India
had
been
addressed
already.

“I
was
brought
in
to
do
a
disease
risk
assessment,
which
found
that
the
risk
is
so
low
that
it
is
negligible.
We’ve
also
mitigated
the
risk
by
vaccinating
the
cheetahs,
putting
them
in
quarantine
and
treating
them
for
internal
and
external
parasites
as
standard
veterinary
procedures,” he
said.

Meanwhile,
public
sector
Indian
Oil
will
contribute
Rs
50
crore
over
four
years
to
the
government’s
Cheetah
introduction
project,
according
to
a
pact
signed
with
the
National
Tiger
Conservation
Authority
(NTCA)
on
August
2.

The
‘African
Cheetah
Introduction
Project
in
India’
was
conceived
in
2009
but
it
failed
to
take
off
for
over
a
decade.

The
plan
to
introduce
the
cheetah
by
November
last
year
in
Madhya
Pradesh’s
Kuno,
spread
over
750
kilometres
in
the
state’s
Chambal
region,
suffered
a
setback
due
to
the
COVID-19
pandemic.

The
Kuno
national
park
has
a
good
prey
base
for
cheetahs,
comprising
the
four-horned
antelope,
chinkara,
nilgai,
wild
pig,
spotted
deer
and
sambar,
according
to
wildlife
officials.

Experts
from
the
premier
Dehradun-based
Wildlife
Institute
of
India
visited
sites
in
Madhya
Pradesh
in
2020
to
look
for
the
best
habitat
for
the
introduction
of
the
African
cheetah.
The
visit
came
after
the
Supreme
Court,
in
January
that
year
approved
the
plan
to
introduce
cheetahs
in
suitable
habitat
on
an
experimental
basis.

The
cheetah
is
considered
vulnerable
under
the
International
Union
for
Conservation
of
Nature’s
(IUCN)
red
list
of
threatened
species,
with
a
declining
population
of
less
than
7,000
found
primarily
in
the
African
savannas.