Fact one: Cheetahs existed in India. In his book The End of A Trail - The Cheetah In India, Divya Bhanu Singh, former vice-president of the Bombay Natural History Society, writes. "Eight hundred years ago coursing with cheetah had already become an established feature of court life in India. The Muslim carried the tradition through time and the Mughals raised it to a grand scale. Akbar alone collected 9,000 cheetahs during his reign and had 1,000 of them at one time."
Fact two: The cheetahs in India were relentlessly hunted down by the British as well as Indians. Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of the erstwhile state of Korea in Chhattisgarh shot dead three cheetahs in 1947, ending the existence of the big cat in India. There has been no sighting in the wild since it was declared extinct in the country in 1952.
When Jairam Ramesh, then the minister for environment and forests, broached the subject during his tenure, new efforts were made to reintroduce the fastest of the big cats (the cheetah can accelerate from rest to 64 kmph in just three strides and reach a speed of 112 kmph) in India. A Rs 300-crore Project Cheetah is awaiting clearance from the Union government. The Namibia-based Cheetah Conservation Fund is ready to help transport the cat from that country to India almost free of cost.
A meeting of experts was held in Gajner in Rajasthan in 2009 to identify sites where the animals could be rehabilitated. Ramesh mandated the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Wildlife Trust of India with the task of examining the sites and assessing the long-term viability of the project.
Experts say that reintroducing the cheetah in India will serve two biological objectives-it will reestablish the ecosystem function role of the cheetah in areas where it formerly roamed, and it will contribute to the global effort for the conservation of the endangered species as well as preserve its genetic diversity.
Reintroducing large carnivores in places from where they have vanished is being recognised as a strategy to conserve threatened species and restore ecosystem functions, explains Y V Jhala, scientist at the Dehradun-based WII. Jhala, who is overseeing the cheetah project, believes that India has the economic ability to restore its lost heritage for ethical as well as ecological reasons.
From the 10 sites in states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh initially considered, three sites have been selected: Kuno-Palpur wildlife sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, Shahgarh in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, and Nauradehi in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh. The wildlife experts find Shahgarh best suited to be home for the big cat. The only hitch is that the Rajasthan government is reluctant to reserve the site for the cheetah since areas in the vicinity have gas and oil reserves. But experts disclose the state government is being persuaded to relent.
Shahgarh has the potential to support 15 cheetahs. Later, the scope can be enlarged to accommodate 25 more cats. The case for Kuno Palampur has been affected by the litigation regarding translocating of lions from Gir in Gujarat. "Till the Supreme Court announces its final judgement, we cannot take any decision on Kuno," says Jhala.
However, there is a lull in the efforts. After Ramesh was shifted to the rural development ministry, Jayanthi Natarajan, his successor in the ministry of environment and forests, seems to be in no hurry to expedite the journey of the cheetah to India. But a green signal is likely soon. And the cheetah's growl could be heard in India again.
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THE DECIMATION According to the Cheetah Conservation Fund, it is estimated that there were more than one lakh cheetahs in 1900 in at least 44 countries. Today the cheetah is extinct in over 20 countries, among them India. Around 10,000 of them remain, found mostly in Africa and in Iran. |
The cheetah is classified as an endangered species, and listed in Appendix I (most threatened species) of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
