‘Better to have gone with Asiatic lion than African cheetah’

What does an oil major have to do with reviving the population of an extinct predator in India Last week front page ads in top newspapers announced Indian Oil Corporationrsquos IOC investment in Project Cheetah with the company offering Rs 5022 crore to the National Tiger Conservation Authority NTCA over four years to introduce the wild cat back into India and protect its habitat and surrounding ecosystem This is for the first time that a large carnivore is being moved across continents and introduced in the wildThis is IOCrsquos CSR effort making it the first Indian corporate to back the Indianrsquos government longpending controversial plan to bring back the Asiatic cheetah which was declared extinct in India back in the early 1950s due to overhunting and habitat loss and is known to exist only in the wild in IranDr Mahesh Rangarajan is professor of history and environmental studies at Ashoka University According to him the Manasollasa a Sanskrit text authored by King Somesvara of Chalukya Dynasty who reigned around the 12th century and is an encyclopaedic work that vividly covers almost all sociocultural aspects that prevailed during that period mentioned the cheetah The Sanskrit word ciratraka or ldquospotted onerdquo may well be the source of the term cheetah The imperial archives of the British and hunting memoirs shed light on the extinction of the cheetah in India The species range extended through from south central and north west India through Iran to historic Palestine ldquoMany were killed for bounty given for carnivores Cheetahs in north India were run down and speared on horseback or shotRavines and scrub jungles also saw direct hunts as well as huge pressure on the prey base numbers that were already dwindling by 1947 Bounty hunts with rewards were standard in British India and the tiger and leopard were also eliminated These were seen as impediment to stock keeping and farm extension danger to humans and a challenge to the empire Although cheetahs did not turn on humans and preyed on sheep and goats carnivores were seen as better dead than aliverdquotheThe current proposal follows an MoU that India signed with Namibia on July 22 and involves translocating eight African cheetahs to Kuno Palpur National Park in Madhya Pradesh The first of these are expected to arrive next week On August 2 Union Environment Forest and Climate Change Minister MOEFampCC Bhupender Yadav tweeted ldquoHappy to have attended the event in which an MoU was signed between ntca_india and IndianOilcl for transcontinental relocation of Cheetah in its historical range in IndiardquoItrsquos a plan that has been actively revived following failure to do so in the 1960s and rsquo70s According to a press release issued by MOEFampCC in January this year ldquoProject Cheetah aims to bring back independent Indiarsquos only extinct large mammalmdashthe cheetah As part of the project 50 cheetahs will be introduced in various national parks over five yearsrdquoDuring the tenure of environment minister Jairam Ramesh in 2009 discussions were once again initiated by the Wildlife Trust of India Experts from across the world officials of the Government of India including the MoEFampCC and representatives of the state governments met and concluded that site surveys would be conducted to explore the potential that this reintroduction idea held Former cheetah range states ie Gujarat Rajasthan Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh were prioritised for this surveySource The International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species in 2021Among the 10 surveyed sites of these central Indian states KNP was rated the highest and feasible location to house the African cheetah population due to its suitable habitat and adequate prey base KNP spread across 748 sq km and devoid of human settlement forms a part of the SheopurShivpuri deciduous open forest landscape and is estimated to have the capacity to sustain 21 cheetahs It is believed that once a larger area is restored the landscape will be sufficient to sustain 36 cheetahs Kuno is probably the only wildlife site in the country where a total relocation of human settlements from inside the park has taken place Kuno also offers the prospect of housing the four big cats of Indiamdashtiger lion leopard and now the cheetahmdashand allowing them to coexist as they had in the past Part of the prep therefore includes the moving out of leopards from the territory in KNP earmarked for cheetahs in order to avoid conflict While three of the five leopards in this area have been moved the search is on to trap the remaining twoA Forest Department official requesting anonymity told midday that the possibility of conflict between leopards and cheetahs cannot be ruled out since Kuno has a good presence of leopards and this big cat which incidentally is more powerful than the cheetah is currently the apex predator hereThe Forest Department has designed massive open enclosures spreading across 10 sq km with electric chain link fencing and CCTV cameras to monitor the movement of the animals At strategic locations watch towers have been set upBengalurubased veteran wildlife biologist and conservation scientist Ravi Chellam believes that the introduction of African cheetahs into India is a plan with limited conservation value In my opinion this project is nothing but a very expensive mistake The authorities should have rather gone ahead with the long delayed translocation of Asiatic lions to Kuno which was ordered by the Supreme Court in 2013Chellam is referring to a 2011 estimate of the cost of the cheetah project touching INR 300 crore The Government of India had initiated the Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project in 1995 that had planned to translocate lions from Gir Forest Gujarat to Kuno Madhya Pradesh but the idea was contested by the Gujarat state government In 2013 the Supreme Court ordered the translocation of Asiatic lions from Gujarat to Madhya Pradesh arguing that the species is under threat of extinction and a second home is in the best longterm interest of conserving the lionsChellam also told Midday that the wild population of Asiatic Lions in and around Gir is only about 700 the only population of the species in the world Indias focus should be on implementing more effective conservation strategies for the lions instead of investing in the conservation of African cheetahs which number over 7000 and exist in several African countriesThe African cheetahs being introduced to Kuno will have no experience of hunting deer which is the most abundant prey there As per the Action Plan the best case scenario is for the cheetahs to reach a population of 21 in about 15 years It is very unlikely that they will ever become selfsustaining Even this process will need intensive handson management and monitoring The whole exercise will be expensive and its success is uncertain too This will end up diverting our attention from highly endangered native species like the great Indian bustard and caracalChellam also feels that because of the highlevel of management involving repeated capture and movement of the cheetahs the introduction will most likely result in the setting up of ldquoglorified safari parksrdquo with swarms of tourists rather than wild landscapes with selfsustaining populations of cheetahs even if efforts continue over several decadesMidday spoke with leading conservationists for their point of viewRaza KazmiConservationist wildlife historian and researcherI am wondering what after the cheetahs breed in Kuno What do you do when their numbers reach Kunorsquos carrying capacity Will we ever be able to establish connected metapopulations that can freely move across connected landscapes as say is done by our tigers and leopards Also can the cheetahs occupy grasslands and open natural ecosystems outside of the Protected Area regime since such landscapes outside the PAs are the most vulnerable among allBittu SahgalEditor Sanctuary AsiaThe idea is hypnotic But I doubt that in the long run it will result in anything more than largish chain link safari parks India has lost most and continues to destroy its grasslands What is more between leopards tigers wild dogs lions and humans we have little hope of protecting young cheetahs from predation Since the government has gone ahead with the plan I hope I am proven wrong and that if nothing else vast tracts of grasslands and arid scrublands will receive muchneeded protectionSarosh LodhiCofounder of CLaW group and conservation photographerWe should conserve what we have Our wild animals are crying for space By introducing a now extinct species we will not only be putting pressure on the translocated animals but also on present predators and the prey base in the areaKedar GoreWildlife conservationist The Corbett FoundationThere is nothing wrong with the idea of reintroducing a species like the cheetah into India However we should have a longterm vision in place of repopulating the grassland ecosystems that are unfortunately neglected and termed ldquowastelandsrdquo in peninsular India A separate fund should be allocated for the Cheetah Project without affecting the existing wildlife conservation projects Funds needed for tiger or elephant conservation should not be compromised or curtailed Local community involvement will be crucial for this reintroduction to be successful It will be a huge challenge to ensure habitat connectivity and develop a sufficient prey base for cheetahs to survive and proliferate