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Express View on cheetah deaths: Nine too many.
Relevance: GS Paper – 3, Conservation, Government Policies & Intervention.
Current Context: Deaths of cheetahs, concerns raised by South African and Namibian scientists, are wake-up calls. Government must heed them.
About Cheetah:
- Cheetah is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran. It is the fastest land animal, capable of running at 80 to 128 km/h.
- The cheetah occurs in a variety of habitats such as savannahs in the Serengeti, arid mountain ranges in the Sahara and hilly desert terrain in Iran.
- Habitat loss, conflict with humans, poaching and high susceptibility to diseases are major threats faced by Cheetahs
- It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
Cheetah in India and it’s reintroduction:
- Cheetahs in India went extinct long back in 1952 due to too much reckless hunting activities. In the 1970s the Indira Gandhi government opened negotiations with Iran for bringing Persian cheetahs to India in exchange for Asiatic lions.
- India has a project to reintroduce the cheetah in its forests, seven decades after the last member of the species went extinct in the country. Under Project Cheetah, the animals are translocated from the forests of South Africa and Namibia to the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.
Project status and concerns raised:
- The re-introduction of the big cat is a long-term project and 11 months is too early to pass judgment on Project Cheetah. The high mortality rate of the animal in its new home is, however, worrying.
- More so, because South African cheetah specialists — they were roped into the steering committee of the translocation program — have raised serious concerns about the project’s implementation in a letter to the Supreme Court.
- A report in this newspaper has revealed that in the letter, dated July 15, the wildlife biologists accused the government of keeping them in the dark about the health of the animals.
- The government’s claim that the scientists have since dissociated themselves from the letter doesn’t appear convincing, given that the young project has invited allegations of giving short shrift to expert opinion from other quarters as well.
India’s Rationale behind Reintroduction of Cheetah:
- Biological Objectives: To re-establish the ecosystem function role of the cheetah in representative areas of its former range and contribute to the global effort towards the conservation of the cheetah as a species.
- Bringing the Cheetah back will make India the only country with five species of big cats: tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard and cheetah.
- Enhancing Livelihood Options: Cheetah reintroduction will boost and enhance living conditions of the local communities in and around the landscapes where the cheetah is likely to be introduced through increased revenues from ecotourism and associated activities.
- Keeping the Food Chain Intact: Top predators regulate all levels in a food chain and are considered as umbrella species for the food chain.
- Cheetah can be a charismatic flagship and umbrella species to garner resources for restoring open forest ecosystems and bringing back the balance in the food web.
- Climate Change Mitigation: It will enhance India’s capacity to sequester carbon through ecosystem restoration activities in cheetah conservation areas and thereby contribute towards the global climate change mitigation goals.
Causes of the Extinction of Cheetahs in India:
- The cheetah in India has been recorded in history from before the Common Era. Records of cheetahs being captured go back to the 1550s.
- Reduced levels of genetic heterogeneity due to a historical genetic bottleneck resulting in high infant mortality in the wild and its reduced ability to breed in captivity were some of the major factors for extinction.
- Sport hunting: The consistent and widespread capture of cheetahs from the wild (both male and female) over centuries.
- From the 16th century onwards, detailed accounts of its interaction with human beings are available as it was recorded by the Mughals and other kingdoms in the Deccan.
- Bounty killings: The British added to the woes of the species by declaring a bounty for killing it in 1871.
- The final phase of its extinction coincided with British colonial rule. It is recorded that the last cheetahs were shot in India in 1947, and officially declared extinct in 1952.
Challenges Associated with the Translocation of Cheetah in India:
- Transition from Enclosure to Wild: A pivotal issue is whether a cheetah living in an enclosure and being fed with a prey will be able to hunt in the wild on its own.
- For instance, Sundari, the tigress which returned from Satkosia in Odisha after a failed relocation attempt, was finally kept captive for life in Bhopal Zoo.
- Adaptability: Reintroduced species experience increased vulnerability to influences of drift, selection, and gene flow evolutionary processes due to their small sizes, and climatic and ecological differences between source and native habitats.
- African Cheetahs need long open spaces to run. Indian parks tend to be much smaller than those in Africa, offering less chance for such free movement.
- Studies in Africa have shown that female cheetahs are solitary and roam vast distances whereas male defend smaller territories and mate when females pass through, creating breeding issues.
- Coexistence of large predators: It has never occurred anywhere else, so there is no real life experience to draw upon to suggest the coexistence of cheetahs, lions, tigers, and leopards could be comfortable.
- Studies have shown that in Africa, the leopards have hunted down cheetahs as prey, and similar fears are being expressed for Kuno, which has about 50 leopards in and around the core area, where cheetahs will be housed.
- Rehabilitation Concerns: For Cheetah’s habitat to be adequately protected, many villages will have to be relocated, which will certainly impact the locals and cause disturbance and migration.
Other Reintroduction Program Across the Globe:
- Bisalpur Rewilding Project in 2018: The project brought back over 150 of the endangered Indian antelope, apart from several other species of fauna and flora in and around the Jodhpur area.
- Gaur (Indian Bison): An African-based safari company was at the forefront of the translocation of 19 gaur at Bandhavgarh National Park in Madhya Pradesh.
- Over a decade, the gaur herd numbered more than 70.
- American Bison: Due to excessive hunting and slaughter for the fur trade, the American Bison population came down to as few as 750 animals in the 1890s.
- Through conservation initiatives, re-introduction and population management the population has rebounded to around 350,000.
- Gray Wolves: Reintroduction of gray wolves at Yellowstone over 21 years ago, helped successfully reverse the degraded ecosystem at the American national park.
Criticism on the reintroduction of Cheetah Project:
- Criticism on the reintroduction of cheetahs has been raised by Indian scientists and the global community.
- These critiques have highlighted the spatial and habitat ecology requirements of cheetahs, as well as the potential for conflict with humans and other carnivores such as tigers and leopards during large-scale dispersal.
- The preservation of carnivores in environments that are heavily influenced by human activity necessitates a multidisciplinary approach that extends beyond the purview of wildlife biologists.
- This is evidenced by the numerous scientific publications of international scope that are co-authored by specialists from diverse fields.
Pressing concerns and Way forward:
- Post-Release Monitoring: There needs to be a proper strategy of monitoring with veterinary supervision and scientific evaluation of extent of adaptations.
- Tracking teams must be organized to keep an eye on the cheetahs and other carnivores released into the wild.
- Awareness Campaign: To spread awareness among local people and sensitize the youth, various outreach & awareness programs should be conducted to familiarize the locals with the reintroduction plan.
- Chintu Cheetah, the official mascot to spread awareness for the Cheetah introduction program is a progressive step in this direction.
- Priority List Management: There should be a proper mechanism to formulate the priority list for evaluation and implementation of policies for conserving different wildlife animals.
- The Cheetah Introduction plan is missing in our National Wildlife Action Plan including the current plan for the period 2017-2031, while the translocation of lions has been a national priority since the 1950s.
- Equal attention should be given to safeguard native species and their habitat.
- Proper Rehabilitation Mechanism: There is need to devise proper rehabilitation policy including a proper communication between administrative officers and locals to ensure their safety and satisfaction.
