Cheetahs roamed the Indian jungle for centuries – even before written history. They can be found in Neolithic cave paintings and in Mughal and British era magazines. But no longer in Indian forests.
Increasing population, depletion of the prey base, and unrestricted hunting by the kings slowly drove cheetahs to extinction through independence.
The fastest animal on earth – which can reach a speed of 120 km/h in seconds – could not escape the bullets. And sometime in 1947 shots fired by the Maharaja of Korawi are said to have killed the last three cats. In 1952 the big cat was finally declared extinct in India.
The reintroduction
But India always wanted the cheetahs in its forests. Attempts to reintroduce Asiatic cheetahs failed as Iran rejected India’s request. As of now, Iran only has about 20 Asiatic cheetahs left.
At that time, the government turned its attention to Africa – where there are still about 7,000 cheetahs, mainly in the forests of Namibia, Botswana and South Africa.
And after more than 12 years of negotiations, the governments of Namibia and India finally signed a pact this year. Namibia has pledged to send 50 cheetahs to India over the next five years.
The journey & the arrival
Eight cheetahs – five males and three females – will be transported from Namibia to Jaipur in a special Boeing 747-400 aircraft, covering over 8,000 km in over 20 hours. A team from the Namibian Cheetah Conservation Foundation (CCF) will also be with the animals.
From Jaipur, they are flown by helicopter to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh – where Prime Minister Narendra Modi releases them the same day. Incidentally, September 17th is also the Prime Minister’s birthday.
Kuno National Park
Kuno National Park is a 748 square kilometer protected area about 200 miles south of Delhi. A 12 km fence was erected to keep predators out of the park, which can house a maximum of 21 cheetahs.
The last moment glitch
The “Project Cheetah” stumbled at the last moment when India refused to take in three of the eight cheetahs on the grounds that they were bred in captivity and could not survive the forest. But Namibia’s Tourism Ministry said all eight animals were caught at a young age and are exposed to hunting.
Under close observation
The cats will be quarantined in a 50 x 30 meter enclosure in the sanctuary for a month and will be under constant surveillance. They will later be released in the sanctuary.
The risk factor
Experts have several concerns. Only a 12 km area is fenced off and the cheetahs are allowed to leave the sanctuary. They also say it will be difficult for big cats to hunt chital deer, which are not found in Africa. But similar experiments have had good results in parts of Africa because cheetahs are highly adaptable.
