Why free-ranging cheetahs alone can make India's relocation project a success
Two years in, cheetahs are doing well in India, reproducing in the bomass; but to survive long-term, they need to be set free in the wild, functioning as predators without fences, say wildlife experts
With much fanfare, a coalition of cheetahs made their way to India, from far-away Africa, two years ago. They reached Indian soil to coincide with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday, in September 2022.
There was a virtual circus around their arrival, but wildlife conservationists were a divided lot. Some believed it was a bad decision, while others insisted it was a well-thought-out move.
Two years later, where does the project stand?
'Too early to say'
The cheetah project, which is being closely watched by the global conservation community, was launched two years ago with the entry of 20 cheetahs, brought in batches to Palpur in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park from Namibia and South Africa.
Today, the cheetah count at Kuno is 24, including 12 cubs.
The consensus seems to be that it may be "too early" to write off India’s ambitious cheetah reintroduction project. Neither can it be termed a "success" as the Union government has been proudly claiming with the birth of cheetah cubs. Wildlife conservationists, meanwhile, are sceptical about the way the high-profile project is progressing.
Nearly 13 cheetahs, including five cubs — which were part of this project to reintroduce these large cats which had gone extinct in 1952 in India — have died. This caused a lot of consternation among wildlife biologists and conservationists.
No free ranging cheetahs
According to Yadvendradev V Jhala, former dean of the Wildlife Institute of India and principal scientist of the Cheetah Project from 2009 to 2023, the project has had "hiccups" but the cheetahs are doing well and reproducing in the biomass (enclosure or fence).
Watch | Two years on, India's ambitious Cheetah translocation project in mess
In a chat with The Federal, Jhala, however, shied away from calling the project a success.
"To call the project a success, we need cheetahs to be roaming in the wild and re-establishing themselves in the Indian ecosystem. For, that is the primary objective of this project. The animal needs to be set free in the wild and function as a predator without fences. Two years later, we still don't have free ranging cheetahs and that is our concern. Also, these animals live only for 12 years. They are in the prime now, but if you don't utilise them now, they will become old and die. We are losing precious time by not releasing these animals in the wild," Jhala told The Federal.
Yadvendradev V Jhala, former dean of Wildlife Institute of India and principal scientist of the Cheetah Project from 2009 till 2023
The Namibian cheetah Pawan, the only one released in the wild eight months back, died in August this year, allegedly by drowning. A few others that were initially released in the wild were brought back into the enclosures after three cheetahs died of septicemia.
Meanwhile, the Centre has been proudly claiming the project is a big success, with Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav most recently posting about it on the X platform.
Watch: The dark clouds over India's cheetah project
While announcing that a cheetah in Kuno is to give birth to cubs, he added that this news is a “symbol of a big achievement of the Cheetah Project”. "This project, started under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji, is proving to be a continuous improvement in the ecological balance," he added.
Problems in Project Cheetah
Former IAS officer MK Ranjitsinh, reputed wildlife conservationist and chairperson of the Supreme Court-appointed committee for the reintroduction of the cheetah in India, felt the project is not being “handled properly”.
"The problem is not feasibility but doing the right thing. They have shelved the original action plan drawn up by the Wildlife Institute of India under its then dean Yadvendradev V Jhala," Ranjitsinh told The Federal. According to him, the government is ignoring the Supreme Court’s advice to run the project with experts.
The Supreme Court had appointed a monitoring committee in 2020 to guide the implementing authority, the National Tiger Conservation Authority but the committee was abruptly dissolved in March 2023 without much explanation.
The new Cheetah Project Steering Committee does not include experts like Ranjitsinh and Jhala, who had prepared the detailed Cheetah Action Plan.
'SC advice ignored'
Ranjitsinh, who had supervised Project Tiger, said, “My contention is the government can ignore SC advice if it wants but they can at least use international experts."
For example, the veteran conservationist suggested that Namibian and South African expertise can be tapped to capture and translocate mammals like the nilgai and blackbuck from other places and release them in Kuno to increase the prey population. "Now, they are bringing prey from sanctuaries and national parks where they are needed for the tigers," he pointed out.
Instead, they need to be captured in the country wherever they are a nuisance to local populations, who just end up butchering them, he explained. One of the setbacks faced by Project Cheetah is the lack of prey in Kuno National Park, he added.
Also read: Cheetah project has not failed, fence their habitat: South African expert
Stumbling blocks
“Bureaucrats don't want to admit they made a mistake and ask for expert help now,” pointed out Ranjitsinh, adding that the government can still rectify its mistakes if it "course corrects".
In his conversation with The Federal, Ajay Suri, wildlife expert and filmmaker, also cited "bureaucratic structure" as one of the challenges facing Project Cheetah.
"In India, wildlife is considered a holy cow, experimentation just does not exist and it is all about following the rule. So wildlife management is not very dynamic, and it carries this huge baggage of officialdom. We need experts to think scientifically. The private sector needs to be roped in for such projects, like they do in Africa. This is sorely lacking in India," pointed out Suri.
However, he believes the government is involved in course correction. “A few cheetahs will be shifted to a new home in Gandhi Sagar in MP and to the Banni grasslands in Gujarat. This shows that the government is not putting all its eggs in one basket with Kuno, these are incremental steps being taken," he pointed out.
The naysayers
Suri felt this project has many "naysayers", who believe cheetahs should not be reintroduced in India.
"The moment one cub dies they raise a ruckus. The numbers have not gone down to zero, cubs are being born and death is part of the life cycle. In a forest each and every creature from butterfly to tiger, all face challenges and have their natural enemies. There has been unnecessary alarm over the deaths of cheetah cubs. Normally, in a forest, the survival rate for cat cubs is very low, around 20 per cent. The cubs of cat animals are more vulnerable than the cubs of others," said Suri.
Moreover, batting for this project, he said, "Translocating a species from one continent to another is not like growing a rose plant. It is more like growing a tree. It is going to take time for the cheetahs to get acclimatised."
Also read | Cheetahs in India will outrun their foes: Expert overseeing relocation programme
"Look at the big picture, it has not even been two years. Give it time – let their population grow," he added.
Cheetah deaths
In Ranjitsinh's view, the deaths of the cheetahs in the past two years could have been avoided. "They were not killed by a tiger or a leopard. One died because of wrong pairing. They mated the wrong pair, a brother and a sister, and the female killed the male. They (authorities) became a laughing stock.
"In another case, there were maggots under the cheetah's collar and it caught septicemia and died. It did not happen overnight, some of the cheetah cubs died of malnutrition and dehydration," he explained.
Jhala said some cheetahs died due to a "lag in adapting their biorhythms to the shift from the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere and failure by management to diagnose and treat resulting skin lesions in time". High-profile conservation projects like Project Cheetah suffer from "political and bureaucratic meddling", he admitted.
Also | Cheetah: Faster than most cars but low on stamina, cannot protect its kill
According to Ranjitsinh, the government is now "bulldozing" its way through, spending millions on creating a second home for the cheetahs in Gandhi Sagar.
"It is not the best place for it has big ravines and no prey. And, the government will get chitals from tiger reserves, which is not a good idea at all," he stressed.
Relocation woes
"We had suggested the Mukundara Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan but for political reasons that was not approved. Politics and bureaucratic ego can probably jeopardise this project in the end," he said.
Moreover, Ranjitsinh is totally against bringing more cheetahs from Kenya since they belong to a different subspecies and cannot be introduced in the same region. "If it happens, I will take them to court on this," warned Ranjitsinh.
Jhala agreed with him. "We cannot mix the two different subspecies. It will have no conservation value. You don't hybridise natural lineages to create new ones, you have to maintain their integrity. What is the reason to bring cheetahs to India? It is to bring back a lost element to the Indian ecosystem and secondly, to give dwindling cheetah population in the world area for expansion. In Africa, local communities don't support large carnivore conservation, they kill them. In India, we share space with lions, tigers, elephants, leopards, our local people are tolerant. By offering India's space, we are giving space to cheetahs as a species to expand and thrive, that is one of the major objectives of the project. If you mix two sub species the objective is lost," he said.
Also read: Politics played a part in cheetah relocation
Further, he added, if they want to still bring 50 to 60 cheetahs from Kenya, they have to forget about these 20 cheetahs from South Africa and start afresh, he advised.
Moving forward
According to PTI, the third batch of cheetahs in this first-ever intercontinental translocation of the big cats, is expected to arrive from Kenya by the end of the year.
The cheetah, the world's fastest cat, takes its name from Sanskrit. It is described in ancient texts like the Vedas and the Ramayana and has been depicted in ancient cave paintings in central India dating back 10,000 to 30,000 years. It was the only large carnivore that went extinct in Independent India due to human actions, said Jhala.
Today, India possesses the scientific knowledge, economic resources and political will to revive this lost element of its cultural and natural heritage, he added.
For the government, the 50 per cent survival rate of the cheetahs and the birth of 17 cubs in India, with 12 surviving, bringing the total number of cheetahs, including cubs, in Kuno National Park to 24, is proof of the success of the project.
Need to shed enclosures
However, the batch in India remains firmly inside enclosures, which is completely against the project's goal.
"Only free-ranging cheetahs can serve as umbrella to restore ecosystems — fenced safari parks and breeding centres alone fall short of achieving this goal," said Jhala.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has now announced that two South African cheetahs, Vayu and Agni, will be released into the wild by the end of this month.
Jhala pointed out that it is not enough to release two. "They need to release eight or ten at a time. The decisions do not seem to be based on knowledge of cheetah behaviour so as to establish them but more on the possibility of losing their jobs in case of cheetah deaths," he added.
"Many will die in the process of establishing but we have to continue by bringing more cheetahs," Jhala asserted.
With not much transparency on the functioning of the NTCA (they refused to share information in August after an RTI query), the conservationists are a worried lot today about the future of this prestigious big cat project.