Cheetah Reintroduction in India

[Sanju]

Wildlife & Biodiversity
Why the cheetah may never come back to India?
Last Updated: Thursday 06 December 2018
The year India became independent it also lost all its cheetahs. In 1947, India's last two Asiatic Cheetahs were shot dead in erstwhile princely state of Surguja. Five years later, in 1952, India officially declared its cheetah population to be extinct but some reports may prolong this period upto 1960's.

In 2009, the UPA government (Congress Party) floated a plan to re-introduce Cheetahs into the wild in India. Iran the only country with a small population of Asiatic Cheetah refused to send any to India for the refusal of "Gujarat's" Lions to Iran.

So India planned to introducing African Cheetahs instead. An expert panel formed by the government shortlisted three protected areas where cheetah's could be relocated. These were

• Kuno Palpur, Nauradehi in "Madhya Pradesh",
• Velavadar National Park in "Gujarat" and
• Tal Chapar sanctuary in "Rajasthan".
  

But experts have not been able to agree if reintroduction of African Cheetahs in India is a good idea and satirized the conservation and "relocation" of country's own "native lions" but want to introduce other animals from foreign countries. An ideal Cheetah habitat should be at least 10,000 sq km for a big population like in African reserves, and must have a strong prey base.

Quote:"A male cheetah hunts every two to five days, while a female with cubs hunts daily."

A section of the experts have argued that these conditions do not prevail in India. But now this plan may have been shelved "forever". A supreme court panel looking into cheetah re-introduction has said that this is a bad idea. It has said that India does not have the “required habitat and prey density” to support cheetahs.


It is almost certain now that these spotted animals will never be sighted in the wild again in India. 

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