On September 17, 2022, eight African cheetahs from Namibia, three males and five females, arrived on Indian soil, kickstarting Project Cheetah, India’s ambitious attempt to bring the world’s fastest land animal back to the country. Today, a year and a half later, what is the status of the project? Are its goals feasible and is the massive cost of it justified? If yes, will it be possible to sustain a free-ranging cheetah population in the long run?
These were some of the questions that were addressed at a panel discussion conducted by the Leadership for Conservation in Africa (LCA), an organisation dedicated to protecting biodiversity in Africa, as part of its Unlocking Nature series. The panel, titled A Short History of India’s Attempt to Introduce African Cheetahs, included Dr. Ravi Chellam, a Bengaluru-based wildlife biologist and conservation scientist, wildlife veterinarian Dr. Willem Daffue who practices at Kroonstad Animal Hospital, and Dr. Gus Mills, one of the global experts on the ecology and behaviour of wild cheetah with 40 years experience studying large African carnivores.
Delving deep into the topic, the panellists outlined the historical background of cheetah extinction in India, the Indian Government’s plan to introduce the African cheetah to India, the current status of these cheetahs, and the road ahead.
Cheetahs in India
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species categorises the cheetah as ‘vulnerable’– facing a high risk of extinction in the wild. “The bulk of the current distribution is in Africa with their population estimated to be around 6500 adult cats as per the 2021 estimate of IUCN,” says Chellam.
However, there was a time in the not-so-distant past, when the grasslands of India were home to scores of Asiatic cheetahs, slightly smaller and slimmer than the African subspecies, of which there are at least three recognised ones. “Cheetahs were found through much of India,” says Chellam, sharing a map of their historical distribution based on hunting and other records. “There is no doubt about the fact that they had a wide-ranging distribution.”
Both the Indian royalty and the British officials stationed in the country captured these animals for sport-hunting, and they were treated like pet dogs or hounds, used for the coursing of blackbuck from the 1550s, says Chellam. “Then, in 1871 the British declared a bounty for killing them. We also had hunting, depletion of prey, habitat loss…”
All this collectively led to a dramatic population decline of these cats, and over time, their extinction. In 1952, the Asiatic cheetah was declared extinct in India, five years after Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo, the Maharaja of Koriya, now a district of Chhattisgarh, in 1947, shot dead what was then thought to have been the last cheetah in the subcontinent, though there were a few credible sightings till 1967. “Fortunately, there is still a surviving population of Asiatic cheetahs in Iran. The estimate is about 40 animals with only 12 identified adults.”
Conversations about bringing in some Asiatic cheetahs from Iran cropped up in the 1970s. “India tried to work with Iran to get a barter system going where we would give them some Asiatic lions and they, in turn, would give us some cheetahs, but that didn’t go very far,“ says Chellam. There was even some talk of trying to clone the Asiatic cheetah, but Iran refused to supply the required biological material, he adds.
The idea of introducing African cheetahs in India took off at an international meeting in 2009 at Gajner, Rajasthan to discuss the issue. “This resulted in a report published in 2010, which assessed the potential for introducing the cheetah in India,” he says. “You had a whole series of things happening at court, within the government and on the ground.”
A cheetah after being released inside a special enclosure of the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. | Photo Credit: PTI
Conservation complexities
Eventually, an action plan for the introduction of cheetahs in India was prepared by the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun. It claimed that bringing back a top predator would not just revive the cheetah population in India, but have other positive ecological consequences due to its cascading effects on the biodiversity in the ecosystems they inhabit – grasslands, scrublands, and open forests. It also argued that the protection of cheetahs would lead to the restoration and better management of these ecosystems.
But the action plan has come in for criticism by many experts. “There are many critiques of the action plan based on facts available in the public domain,” says Chellam, who believes that the scientific foundations of the project are weak. He says that not only is it a very expensive project that hasn’t properly considered potential risks like disease, more serious in a small population with limited genetic diversity in an alien environment, but it is also based on this false assumption that India has the space for cheetahs in the wild. “Many of us feel that it is a distraction that conservation in India can ill afford.”
This six-year-old Cheetah at Masai Mara Savannah grassland National Reserve makes a slow cautious move towards its identified prey hiding behind a small bush surrounded by 2.5 feet grass. | Photo Credit: Ramesh Susarla
Mills, on the other hand, highlighted the situation of cheetahs in Africa. Contrary to popular belief that cheetahs are doing very well in Africa, he points out that their population appears to be declining. According to him, many cheetah researchers in Africa, too, have strong reservations about India’s cheetah introduction project. “We need to recognize that it is a fallacy that there is a surplus of cheetahs that could be sent to India.” He says that most of these surplus cheetahs are in “glorified safari parks” – small, fenced reserves where their movement and prey are manipulated.
Lack of space
Besides, India, which is already home to 144 crore people and tens of thousands of species including several large predators, simply does not have enough space. Cheetahs, says Chellam, are a low-density, wide-ranging species. In the wild, they exist in densities of 1-2 per 100 sq km even in the most suitable habitats and have home ranges of anywhere between 760 to 3000 sq km. “Translocated cats have been known to move more than a thousand kilometres. This is innate, in their biology,” he explains.
A wild cheetah is being released at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh state. | Photo Credit: AFP
The Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh where the cheetahs from Namibia and South Africa have been introduced, is around 748 sq km, lacking the capacity to sustain the 21 cheetahs as estimated by the Cheetah Action Plan. “Based merely on availability of space, we question India and particularly Kuno as a suitable site for introducing the African cheetah and establishing free-ranging wild populations of it,” says Chellam. “The bottom line is that currently India does not have the required extent of quality habitat,” he says. Chellam also adds that India’s conservation ethos and culture do not allow for fencing and the South African model cannot be replicated.
File photo of a cheetah at Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad. | Photo Credit: Ramesh Babu K
Other issues
Other major concerns were raised during the discussion including the recent death of several cheetahs and the significant amount of time spent by them in some sort of captivity – far from ideal for predators in the wild who would have to fend for themselves.
There is yet another issue related to the Cheetah project which has not received enough attention. In 2013, to increase the likelihood of survival of India’s lions, now restricted to Gir in Gujarat, the Supreme Court ordered the translocation of some of the lions from the Gir National Park to Kuno National Park within 6 months, in response to a PIL filed in 2006. The same judgment also quashed the plan to introduce the African cheetahs, Chellam says. And yet, even after more than 10 years, there is no sign that the Indian government is following up on the order. “The implementation of this project is at complete odds with the commitments the government made to the court, which means that we are violating the rule of law,” he says.
Chellam also feels that apart from this legal violation, Project Cheetah distracts from other wildlife priorities in India, such as the conservation of other threatened species like the Asiatic lion, great Indian bustard and caracal. “The government slashed project funding related to wildlife by nearly 50 per cent,” he says, adding, however, that enormous investment continues to be made towards the cheetah introduction programme.
He also disputes the claim being made that Project Cheetah is on the road to success. According to him, a conservation project whose goal is to establish a free-ranging, self-sustaining population of a predator cannot consider itself a success when the animals have spent the bulk of their time in captivity. He also suggests a political angle to the implementation of the project. “Many respected scientists and institutions pointing out weaknesses or flaws have been sidelined,” he says. He believes that healthy debate and course correction are crucial. “That will happen only if people are willing to speak and the government is willing to listen.”
A different approach
Given that the project goals are unrealistic and hence unattainable, a different approach may be needed going forward. Chellam suggests we stop importing more cheetahs from Africa, avoid investing more effort and funds into building fenced reserves and captive breeding facilities and curtail the captive breeding programme. Instead, he says, we could use the cheetahs already brought here for education and recreation by housing them in well-designed safari parks. ”It is our responsibility to look after them and provide them the best possible care.”
