Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi releases wild Cheetahs which had become extinct from India, in Kuno National Park, in Madhya Pradesh, India on September 17, 2022. (Photo by Press Information Bureau/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
After months of delay, the governments of India and South Africa have signed a controversial deal to send African cheetahs to India, 70 years after its Asiastic cheetah was declared extinct.
But the six-month period the seven males and five females cheetahs have spent in quarantine in bomas has compromised the prospect for reintroduction success, said the project’s proponent, Vincent van der Merwe, a cheetah conservationist and manager of the Cheetah Metapopulation for the Metapopulation Initiative.
“The cheetahs have spent six months of their eight to 10-year lifespan in quarantine, waiting for government approvals for their relocation. The reproductive ability of the females would have been compromised as fertility is reduced if females only start breeding later in life or go through long periods without breeding,” he said, describing how this has the potential to compromise their successful establishment in India.
“The cheetahs would also have lost considerable fitness, condition and vigilance during this six-month period.”
He said the first batch of cheetahs would fly out of South Africa on 13 February.
“We have selected the best possible cheetah for successful reintroduction into India. All 12 cheetahs are wild-born, have grown up among competing predators including lion, leopard and hyena, and are aware of the dangers that these competing predators present. They are predator-savvy.”
‘Far-reaching’ conservation consequences
Earlier this month, Barbara Creecy, the minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment and India’s minister of environment, forest and climate change, Bhupender Yadav, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on co-operation in the reintroduction of cheetahs to India.
Under the agreement, an initial batch of 12 cheetahs will be sent to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. The MoU commits South Africa to sending a further 12 cheetahs annually for the next eight to 10 years, bringing the total to 120 cats from South Africa.
Restoring cheetah populations is considered to be a priority for India and will have “vital and far-reaching” conservation consequences, according to the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment.
These aim to achieve a number of ecological objectives, including re-establishing the “function role of cheetah within their historical range in India and enhancing the livelihood options and economies of the local communities”.
The initiative to “reintroduce” cheetah to a former range state following the local extinction of this species because of over-hunting and habitat loss in the last century is at the request of the Indian government.
‘Viable, secure populations’
According to the MoU, the two countries will cooperate by sharing expertise and capacity aimed at promoting cheetah conservation, “inclusive of human-wildlife conflict resolution, capture and translocation of wildlife and community participation in conservation in the two countries”.
They will exchange best practices in large carnivore conservation through the transfer of technology, training of professionals in management, policy, and science, and establish a bilateral custodianship arrangement for cheetah translocated between the two countries
The MoU notes that India will develop a plan for the reintroduction of cheetahs, provide the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora permits and veterinary or health checks to facilitate importation of cheetahs to India.
It will also provide adequate and financially sustainable security, monitoring and management mechanisms for all cheetahs moved to India from South Africa.
‘Vanity project’
Last year, in a letter published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, eight scientists from India, South Africa, Portugal, the Netherlands and Australia described the translocation project as “ecologically unsound”, costly and one that “may serve as a distraction rather than help global cheetah and other science-based conservation efforts”.
The introduction of African cheetahs to India risks causing the deaths of the big cats in human wildlife conflict, they warned. One of the letter’s authors, Bangalore-based wildlife biologist and conservation scientist Ravi Chellam, said the project is a glorified safari park and a vanity project.
“It is an ecologically and scientifically flawed project, which is very unlikely to succeed,” he said. “The cheetah action plan on which this entire initiative is based makes conservation claims, which are not supported by facts, track record or science.”
“It is unfortunate that Namibia and South Africa, countries with a reputation for science-based wildlife management are sending cheetahs, contradicting all available scientific evidence.”
The move contradicts the April 2013 order of the supreme court of India to translocate Asiatic lions from Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary in Gujarat to Kuno, which is a much higher conservation priority. These endangered lions are restricted to a single isolated population in and around Gir and are the world’s only population of the subspecies.
“In that sense, both Namibia and South Africa are aiding the government of India to act with impunity and disrespect for the rule of law,” he said.
The project is a “hugely expensive distraction” from the current conservation priorities of India. “A waste of scarce conservation resources, which the world and humanity cannot afford.”
Chellam added that the animal welfare of the individual cheetahs is being greatly compromised by their prolonged captivity. “In many cases, the period of captivity may render the cats unsuitable for release to be free-ranging.”
Indian media has reported that the introduced Namibian cheetahs are slowly adapting to their new home, and are hunting on their own in larger fenced enclosures in Kuno National Park. But one of the cheetahs is reportedly suffering from dehydration and kidney infections, according to the Hindustan Times, and is undergoing treatment.
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