Cheetahs in India are hunting with ease. But why the real test is yet to come

On February 18, Kuno National Park was busier than usual. Added to the regular visits of wildlife enthusiasts was a flurry of VIP arrivals. Union and state ministers descended at the National Park to welcome 12 cheetahs who were flown into India from South Africa by a team of the Indian Air Force. What added to the joy of the new arrivals for wildlife lovers is that it also signaled that the reintroduction of eight cheetahs from Namibia in September 2022 was moving towards success.

By all accounts, seven of the eight African cheetahs in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park have taken to their new home like fish to water. Two of these, nick-named Freddie and Elton who also happen to be brothers, often hunt in pair without missing a step.

What has caused the authorities to heave a sigh of relief is the ease with which the cheetahs in Kuno are able to take down their prey. The reason for this remarkable success rate in hunting has to do largely with the type of animals they end up chasing and killing in their large enclosures.

In Africa, cheetahs have to slog very hard to earn their meals. Their prey base consists mainly of impalas and gazelles, which are known for the high speed at which they sprint across the grasslands, thereby putting extra load even on the world’s fastest mammal to pull off the hunt successfully. No wonder a fairly large number of these chases end with the deer escaping with its hide intact. Interestingly, it’s nature’s way of maintaining the ecological balance. It ensures that, in the long run, neither the hunter nor the hunted has an extra edge over the other.

In contrast, none of the prey animals in India are known for their extraordinary speed. The two dominant species of deer in India, cheetal and sambhar, which are also present in Kuno don’t have the speed of their African counterparts and are therefore no match for the cheetahs. The deer in India didn’t need to develop high speed because the apex hunter here, the tiger (or for that matter even the smaller-sized leopard), kills by stalking and attacking and not by running across the prey over a large distance.

But surviving in the wild for the hunter takes more than just bagging the prey. The real test of the cheetahs in Kuno, points out HS Pabla, former chief wildlife warden of Madhya Pradesh to The Federal, would begin once they are taken out of their enclosures.

“Bringing cheetahs to India — and now more of them are coming — is a wonderful development and I support the government’s initiative wholeheartedly. However, these cheetahs will have to survive in the Indian conditions, which are very different from Africa. We will be keenly watching how the cheetahs fare once they are brought out of the enclosure, on the other side of the fence where a number of threats and dangers to them exist,” adds Mr Pabla.

The arrival of 12 more cheetahs to Kuno is also an indicator that the eight residents have passed the test of survival — but only inside their enclosure where their activities are being monitored closely.

Shivang Mehta, wildlife expert and an author, has seen cheetahs from close quarters at several places in Africa. He debunks the myth that cheetahs only hunt and flourish in grasslands. Even before the first batch of cheetahs arrived in Kuno in September 2022, many activists who were against the cheetah relocation programme, had voiced concerned at the ‘mix’ nature of forest cover in Kuno, where grasslands and scrub forest interspersed in several zones. It was argued that with not many open spaces to run to their full capacity, the new arrivals would find it exceedingly difficult to catch the prey.

But this is not the case, argues Mehta. “At many reserves in Africa such as Amboseli, Tsavo and others, cheetahs have been successfully hunting even in the wooded forests. So, the forest in Kuno is not all that different. It’s not likely to put any additional burden on the cheetahs.”

The eventual success of cheetah’s relocation in India, however, cannot be taken for granted. There could still be a few slips between the cup and the lip. As Pabla points out, cheetahs in their African homeland exist peacefully in the natural reserves which are fenced at the borders. So there is no human interference of any kind. “In Africa, wherever people live there is no wildlife. And where wildlife resides, there are no humans. Sadly, this is not the case in India,” he adds.

When it comes to the incidents of man-animal conflicts in several places in India, the picture is far from rosy. Whether it’s the ‘sugarcane tigers’ of Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit which kill humans on recurring basis or elephants which fall prey to poachers for their ivory at other places, the conflict is a reality which cannot be wished away. And it’s into this murky cauldron that the cheetahs of Kuno will find themselves in sooner or later.

“There has been no record of cheetahs attacking humans. But it’s possible that, like leopards, they start lurking around villagers in search of goats and cattle. This could lead to tragic consequences for cheetahs. Therefore, it will be every important to educate the villagers about cheetahs. They should be made to view this magnificent cat as an asset and not as a threat.’’

All that is easier said than done. In the last two months, according to the data released by National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) early this week, as many as 24 tigers died in various parts of the country — the highest mortality for two months so far.

One hopes the cheetah in India, once it gets a firmer toe-hold here, fares better.