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NEW DELHI: Eight Namibian cheetahs arrived in India on Saturday, part of an ambitious project to reintroduce the world’s fastest land animal to the South Asian country, where it has been extinct for more than 70 years.
Once abundant throughout Africa and Asia, cheetahs face the threat of global extinction, with their population estimated at fewer than 8,000 in the wild, a 50 percent decline over the past four decades.
In India, local extinction was officially declared in 1952 after years of extensive hunting and habitat loss. Project Cheetah, launched on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday on September 17, is expected to cost $11 million over five years. The Indian Petroleum Corporation is offering financial support.
“Decades ago, the ancient nexus of biodiversity was severed and became extinct. Today we have an opportunity to reconnect it,” Modi said after releasing the wild cats into a soft enclosure at Kuno National Park. “Twenty-first century India is telling the world that economy and ecology are not mutually exclusive.”
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Cheetahs, once abundant throughout Africa and Asia, face the threat of global extinction, with their population estimated at fewer than 8,000 in the wild, a 50 percent decline over the past four decades.
The plan is to move batches of cheetahs from southern Africa to India until the country has around 40 cheetah populations. On Saturday, the first batch arrived on a Boeing 747 from Namibia and were flown to their new home in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
dr. Satya Prakash Yadav, director of the Wildlife Institute of India, which will oversee the project, told Arab News that this is the first intercontinental relocation of cheetahs to be released into the wild.
“The plan is to have 20 cheetahs in the first year and then based on adaptability, survival, conservation, breeding and behavior we will replenish the population every year for the next five years unless a better viable population becomes available. established,” said Yadav. In Kun, the cheetahs will share 5,000 square kilometers of forest and grassland with other wildlife, including leopards. But experts say that’s not enough space for the newly arrived cats to thrive.
The ambitious experiment would have to provide at least 10,000 square kilometers of habitat and include a population of wild prey for the cheetahs, says Ullas Karanth, a wildlife expert at the Center for Wildlife Studies in the southern city of Bangalore. Kuno is too small to sustain a cheetah population, he said.
“We should have created this habitat first before bringing in these African cheetahs,” Karanth told Arab News. “The current project is putting the cart before the horse and bringing in cheetahs before the habitat is properly prepared.
“This is not a scientific conservation goal, more of a public relations effort that will end up being just another big tourist zoo.”
“The key question to ask is: What is the purpose of this exercise?” Avijit Sarkhel, a Delhi-based wildlife activist, told Arab News as he expressed concern about India’s ability to protect cheetahs.
“I’m not sure if it’s a smart decision. For me, it’s more about reclaiming India’s place as the world’s largest wildcat pool,” said Sarkhel. “We have to see how we can handle it.”
Kuno National Park is set to become home to some of the last remaining Asiatic lions – and experts say the area is more suitable for these animals. For this project, the inhabitants of some two dozen villages were relocated, which promised the development of tourism in the region.
But the project stalled after the government of Gujarat state, home to all the Asiatic lions, opposed the move. Two years ago, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a plan to experimentally import cheetahs from Namibia.
“We must remember that the villages that have been evacuated are suffering from extreme poverty, malnutrition and backwardness and these problems would be solved if tourism is allowed to develop around the Kuno National Park,” Ajay Dubey, a wildlife and social activist from city of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, Arab News said.
With the cheetahs now brought in to restore their population, “the villagers have lost all hope of improving their livelihoods,” Dubey argued.