IN A SPOT OF TROUBLE

TWO YEARS AFTER AFRICAN CHEETAHS WERE BROUGHT TO KUNO NATIONAL PARK IN MADHYA PRADESH, THE GOVERNMENT CALLS THE PROJECT A SUCCESS. CONSERVATIONISTS ARE NOT SO SURE

- JUMANA SHAH & RAHUL NORONHA

Two years ago, on September 17, the sight of Indian Air Force helicopters touching down at Palpur in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park, ferrying eight cheetahs from Namibia in the final leg of their journey, had filled Indians with a sense of pride. The world took note of this science-backed transcontinental relocation, part of an ambitious project to reintroduce the large cats to the wild in India.

On the second anniversary of this momentous event, Union minister of environment, forest and climate change Bhupender Yadav declared the project a "success" on September 17, 2024. Something that prompted wildlife biologists and conservationists to come down heavily on the government and the Cheetah Project Steering Committee (CPSC) of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for patting themselves on the back instead of acknowledging that the spate of deaths (see Tragic Obituaries) and the fact that none of the 24 survivors-12 adults and 12 cubs-roam the wild have actually derailed the project. Pawan, the last cheetah to have most recently roamed the wild for about eight months, died in August. The NTCA has now announced that two South African cheetahs, Vayu and Agni, will be released into the wild by the end of this month.

The deaths of the eight adult cheetahs were not caused by factors mentioned as the potential causes of mortality in the Cheetah Action Plan (CAP), according to experts. "Free-ranging cheetahs died due to negligence in their monitoring. Reasons included an infection around the neck due to radio-collaring, the wrong choice of specimens for mating, and diseases contracted in enclosures and cages. None of the cheetahs died in conflicts with leopards, which had been cited as a major threat, nor from poaching. These losses were avoidable," says Dr M.K. Ranjitsinh, eminent wildlife expert and former head of the SC-appointed expert committee.