Cheetahs to arrive in India on PM Modi's birthday? Details inside on world’s first inter-continental cheetah translocation project

Seven decades after the fastest moving animal on earth became extinct in India, Cheetahs will arrive in India on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday. He will introduce five of the world’s fastest animal in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park on September 17. Cheetahs are set to be re-introduced at the Kuno National Park (KNP). The fastest moving animal on earth from Namibia are likely to arrive at the national park by September 16, a day before the PM’s arrival.

 

 

This came after Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan confirmed the development on Tuesday. "It’s a matter of joy for all of us that the PM will be in MP on his birthday. And to add further to that joy, he will be inaugurating the reintroduction of cheetahs from Africa project at the Kuno National Park in the Sheopur district. The PM will also address a gathering of women self-help groups (SHGs) in Karahal town of the same Sheopur district,” the MP CM proudly announced before the start of Tuesday’s cabinet meeting.

 

 

 

The CM made the announcement about the PM’s arrival and inauguration of Africa to India cheetahs translocation project after the PMO gave its nod to the MP government’s invitation. Reports suggest that in the Sheopur district, the workforce on the ground is racing against time to prepare seven helipads in and around the KNP, which is spread over a 750 sq km area.

 

 

These helipads will ensure hassle-free landing of the cheetahs as well as the important officials and security staff for the PM’s visit. Also, all hotels and restaurants around KNP have been booked by the local administration from September 14 to September 20.

 

Earlier, it was planned to translocate cheetahs from Namibia as well as South Africa at one go, but with MoU with SA yet to be signed, now cheetahs will be brought from Namibia first, with which India already has an MoU on the cheetah's translocation. 12 cheetahs, including four to five females, have been vaccinated and quarantined for a month in Namibia, which is part of preparations to airlift them to India.

 

Once at the KNP, they will be kept in the 500-hectare enclosure for two to three months before they are finally freed into the wild. They will be first quarantined in a part of the enclosure for a month, then shifted into the entire enclosure for around two to three months, before being free into the wild. Meanwhile, a team of experts from South Africa and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) are believed to have landed at KNP for working on the translocation of Cheetahs from South Africa in the next few months.

 

Cheetahs, the fastest land animal got extinct in India in the 1950s, majorly because of excessive hunting. Following extensive hunting, the cheetahs reportedly had become extinct in India in 1952. The last of the Cheetahs were hunted by the Raja of Koriya, in the jungles which are now part of Chhattisgarh in 1947. Five years later, the fastest moving animal on earth was declared extinct officially in India.

 

 

Cheetah has a very special significance for the national conservation ethic and ethos. Bringing the cheetah back to India would have equally important conservation ramifications. Cheetah restoration will be part of a prototype for restoration of original cheetah habitats and their biodiversity, helping to stem the degradation and rapid loss of biodiversity.

Among large carnivores, conflict with human interests are lowest for cheetahs, as they are not a threat to humans and usually do not attack large livestock. Bringing back a top predator restores historic evolutionary balance resulting in cascading effects on various levels of the ecosystem leading to better management and restoration of wildlife habitat (grasslands, scrublands and open forest ecosystems), conservation of cheetah’s prey and sympatric endangered species and a top-down effect of a large predator that enhances and maintains the diversity in lower trophic levels of the ecosystems.

Surveys for 10 sites were conducted between 2010 and 2012. From the potential sites evaluated for the feasibility of establishing cheetah populations in India based on IUCN guidelines for reintroductions that consider species viability according to demography, genetics and socio-economics of conflict and livelihoods, Kuno National Park in the state of Madhya Pradesh was considered ready for receiving cheetah with the least management interventions since a lot of investments had been done in this Protected Area for reintroducing Asiatic lions.

 

Cheetah presence locations from Southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe) were used along with relevant eco-climatic covariates to model equivalent niche space in India using Maximum Entropy Models. The analysis shows that the climatic niche of the cheetah from southern Africa exists in India with Kuno National Park having a high probability of cheetah habitat suitability.

 

 

The action plan for cheetah translocations in Kuno National Park has been developed in compliance with IUCN guidelines and considering site assessment and prey density, current cheetah carrying capacity of Kuno National Park, among other criteria. While the current carrying capacity for Kuno National Park is a maximum of 21 cheetahs, once restored the larger landscape can hold about 36 cheetahs. The carrying capacity can be further enhanced by including the remaining part of the Kuno Wildlife Division (1,280 sq km) through prey restoration.

Financial and administrative support to the cheetah reintroduction programme in India would be provided by MoEF&CC through NTCA. Participation of Government and corporate agencies through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) would be encouraged for additional funding at the State and Central level. The Wildlife Institute of India (WII), national and international carnivore/cheetah experts/agencies would provide technical and knowledge support to the programme.

The officials of the MoEF&CC, NTCA, WII, State Forest Departments would be sensitized to ensure the success of cheetah reintroduction in India, through capacity building programs in Cheetah conservation reserves of Africa. In addition, the Cheetah managers and biologists from Africa would be invited to impart training of Indian counterparts.

The Kuno National Park management will be responsible for monitoring which is essential for protection and management while a cheetah research team will monitor for research. Various outreach & awareness programmes will be conducted to encourage participation of local villagers. Sarpanches (village head men), local leaders, teachers, social workers, religious figures and NGOs would be provided with a better stake in the conservation. Awareness programmes are also planned for schools, colleges and villages sensitizing people about the conservation and various schemes available with the forest department.

Public awareness campaigns are underway for the local communities with a local mascot named “Chintu Cheetah”. The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh has asked all state officials and elected members of the state assembly from the constituencies around Kuno National Park to disseminate information regarding the cheetah-human interface.

As per the directions of the Supreme Court of India in 2020, the cheetah reintroduction in India is being overseen by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), guided and directed by the committee of experts designated by the Supreme Court of India.