Cheetah reintroduction in India

Ajay0 · Feb 20, 2023

Due to overhunting and destruction of native habitat by human settlement and agriculture purposes, the native Indian cheetah was declared extinct in India in 1952.

Now efforts are underway to reintroduce the cheetah into wildlife sancturaries in India with South African and Namibian support.

Cheetah reintroduction in India - Wikipedia

Conservation plan on track, 12 South African cheetahs land in India – total tally at 20

New Delhi: Twelve South African cheetahs landed in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park Saturday, taking the total tally of cheetahs in India to 20, and marking the end of the first step that seeks to revive the species within the country and contribute to conservation efforts worldwide.

The cheetahs reached Gwalior airport early Saturday morning on an Indian Air Force C-17 Globe Master plane, and were then transported via helicopter to Kuno where they were released into quarantine enclosures.

“All twelve cheetahs are doing well, and I will be in Kuno to monitor them for two weeks,” Vincent Van Der Merwe, South African cheetah expert with conservation organisation, The Metapopulation Initiative, told ThePrint soon after the plane landed in India.

The decision to translocate cheetahs from Namibia and South Africa has been decades in the making, with the objective of establishing a free ranging, wild population within the country after they were declared extinct in 1952. The government also hopes the introduction of the cheetah to India will save its vanishing grassland ecosystems.

After spending a minimum of 30 days in quarantine, the cheetahs will be moved to larger fenced enclosures – following in the steps of their Namibian counterparts – before being released into the wild in earnest. Their survival in the wild will be the biggest test of the project’s success, experts have said.

A consultative workshop with international cheetah experts, scientists, veterinarians, and forest officials will take place on 20 February at Kuno National Park, the outcome of which “will pave the way for better cheetah management and will help in successfully establishing cheetah metapopulation in India,” a government statement said.

“It is because of South Africa’s successful conservation practices that our country is able to participate in a project such as this – to restore a species in a former range state and thus contribute to the future survival of the species,” said South Africa Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Barbara Creecy in a statement Friday.
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wilsjane · Feb 20, 2023

They will be fine if kept on wild life reserves, but dangerous to have running around everywhere. This may have been the reason that they were hunted to extinction in the first place.

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Cheetah reintroduction in India

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