Cheetah Reintroduction in India

[Ovie11]

International trade nod may delay cheetah translocation in Madhya Pradesh further 

BHOPAL: The execution of world’s first intercontinental ‘South Africa-Madhya Pradesh Cheetah translocation project’ may take longer than expected as approval of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is needed. Eight cheetahs, half of them males, are to be shifted from South Africa to MP’s Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in the first phase of the project. 

Sources say this project cannot take off without consent of the agency. CITES is a treaty between governments to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten the survival of the species. It was drafted following a resolution at a meeting of members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 1963, which entered into force on 1 July 1975. “Yes, their approval is necessary for this project. But I am not aware if the central ministry has taken it from them. It is the MoEF’s responsibility,” said an IFS officer.

Cheetah has been in CITES Appendix-I list since its inception. “Globally, this species is considered ‘vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, with a declining extant population of less than 7,000, found primarily in the savannas of Africa. While southern Africa is the cheetah’s regional stronghold, it is considered critically endangered in North and West Africa. A small and remnant Asiatic population exists also in Iran, where it is assessed as critically endangered,” says a report on CITES. 

Cheetahs face a variety of pressures to their existence in the wild, including habitat loss, hunting of their prey base for bush-meat, illegal international trade and conflict with livestock owners, it added.

Cheetahs last spotted in India during 1950s

Since the trade in wild animals and plants crosses borders between countries, the effort to regulate it requires international cooperation to safeguard certain species from over-exploitation, they say. In 2019, the SC had given its nod to the National Tiger Conservation Authority’s proposal to experimentally introduce African cheetahs in Indian jungles. The last of the cheetahs in the country was hunted down in the 1950s. After an extensive study, Kuno was selected as the ideal location for shifting Cheetahs. The Cheetah Conservation Fund, Namibia, had expressed its willingness to donate cheetahs to India.  

According to NTCA, reintroduction of cheetah would be a matter of great conservation significance, as it would be the only large animal that peninsular India has lost in its historical times and bringing focus on country’s most productive yet neglected grassland ecosystem. Weather conditions back home along with Covid-19 and violence in South Africa has already delayed this project to a large extent. TNN 

https://m.timesofindia.com/city/bhopal/international-trade-nod-may-delay-cheetah-translocation-in-madhya-pradesh-further/articleshow/87956562.cms?fbclid=IwAR3palupezON44WcHr1-J2GGFT1cBPxGqW3L84nWW5dZylLZTpbxfCb9tms Reply