India’s Project Cheetah must stop importing big cats, say scientists Premium

Scientists urge India to halt importing African cheetahs due to habitat shortages and conservation concerns amid Project Cheetah's challenges.

Last week, nine wild African cheetahs were tranquilised in Botswana’s savannah, quarantined for a few weeks in the country, and then taken on a 10-hour flight over the Indian Ocean by the Indian Air Force to Gwalior. From here, the big cats were flown in helicopters to large quarantine enclosures in Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

This was part of the controversial multi-crore Project Cheetah, flagged off in 2022 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi (on his birthday, September 17). The aim was to introduce African cheetahs to India — Asiatic cheetahs were hunted to extinction in the country in 1952 — to help with the “global conservation” of the big cat and re-establish the cheetah within its “historical range”.

“Here, the cheetah will serve as a flagship to save not only its prey-base, but also other endangered species [such as the great Indian bustard and the Indian wolf] of the grassland and semi-arid ecosystems,” the National Tiger Conservation Authority had said.

The scheme also hopes to improve livelihood options for local communities through ecotourism.

With this new batch, India now has 53 cheetahs, 33 of which are cubs born here and 20 are adults brought from Namibia in 2022, and South Africa in 2023, and, now, nine from Botswana. Jwala gave birth to five cubs on March 9, her third litter in three years.

Last week, Gamini, a cheetah from South Africa, gave birth to four cubs in Kuno National Park to much applause.