Relevance: GS-3 : Environment and conservation related issues.

Key Phrases: Cheetah, Introducing African Cheetah to India, Kuno Palpur National Park, Challenges and Complexities of the Project, Distribution and Habitat of Cheetah, Cause of Extinction of Cheetah.

Why in News?

• The cheetah, which became extinct in India after Independence, is all set to return with the Union Government launching an action plan.
• According to the plan, about 50 of these big cats will be introduced in the next five years, from the African savannas, home to cheetahs, an endangered species.

Key Highlights

• With help from the Wildlife Institute of India and the Wildlife Trust of India, the ministry will be translocating African cheetahs from South Africa, Namibia and Botswana over a period of five years as per the Action Plan.
• The such introduced cheetah would be fitted with Satellite/GSM-GPS-VHF radio-collars before their release in the wild so as to enable monitoring remotely.
• The big cats will live at Kuno Palpur National Park in Madhya Pradesh.
• It will be the most suitable for cheetah translocation in terms of habitat and an adequate prey base.

Distribution and Habitat of Cheetahs in India

• Distribution
  • Historically, Asiatic cheetahs had a very wide distribution in India.
  • There are authentic reports of their occurrence from as far north as Punjab to Tirunelveli district in southern Tamil Nadu, from Gujarat and Rajasthan in the west to Bengal in the east.
  • Most of the records are from a belt extending from Gujarat passing through Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha.
  • The distribution range of the cheetah was wide and spread all over the subcontinent.They occurred in substantial numbers.
• Habitat
  • The cheetah’s habitat was also diverse, favoring the more open habitats:
    • Scrub forests, dry grasslands, savannas and other arid and semi-arid open habitats.
  • Some of the last reports of cheetahs in India prior to their local extinction are from edge habitats of sal forests in east-central India, not necessarily their preferred habitat.
  • In Iran, the last surviving population of wild Asiatic cheetahs are found in hilly terrain, foothills and rocky valleys within a desert ecosystem.

Cause of Extinction of Cheetahs in India

• Hunting Sports
  • It was taken from the wild for coursing blackbuck for centuries, which is a major contributor to the depletion of its numbers through the ages.
  • The British added to the woes of the species by declaring a bounty for killing it in 1871.
  • The final phase of its extinction coincided with British colonial rule.
• Capturing
  • The consistent and widespread capture of cheetahs from the wild (both male and female) over centuries leads to its extinction
  • It is reported that the Mughal Emperor Akbar had kept 1,000 cheetahs in his menagerie and collected as many as 9,000 cats during his half century reign from 1556 to 1605.
  • As late as 1799, Tipu Sultan of Mysore is reported to have had 16 cheetahs as part of his menagerie.
  • The cheetah numbers were fast depleting by the end of the 18th century even though their prey base and habitat survived till much later.
• Low Fertility and High Infant Mortality in Captivity
  • Its reduced levels of genetic heterogeneity due to a historical genetic bottleneck resulting in reduced fecundity and high infant mortality in the wild and its inability to breed in captivity are the major reasons for the extinction of the Asiatic cheetah in India.
• Human-Wildlife Conflicts
  • The reasons for extinction can all be traced to man’s interference.
  • Problems like human-wildlife conflict, loss of habitat and loss of prey, and illegal trafficking, have decimated their numbers.
• Other Factors Responsible for its Extinction
  • The advent of climate change and growing human populations have only made these problems worse.
  • With less available land for wildlife, species that require vast home range like the cheetah are placed in competition with other animals and humans, all fighting over less space.

Conservation Objectives and Criticism of Introducing African Cheetahs in India

• Objective 1
  • Establish viable cheetah metapopulation in India that allows the cheetah to perform its functional role as a top predator.
  • To provide space for the expansion of the cheetah within its historical range thereby contributing to its global conservation efforts.
• Criticism
  • African cheetahs are not required to perform the role of the top predator in these habitats when the site (Kuno) that they have identified already has a resident population of leopards, transient tigers and is also the site for the translocation of Asiatic lions as ordered by the Supreme Court of India in 2013.
  • In other open dry habitats in India there are species performing this role, e.g wolf and caracal, both of which are highly endangered and need urgent conservation attention.
  • This exercise will require continuous and intensive management.
  • Such a small number of cats at very few sites cannot meet the stated goal of performing its ecological function at any significant scale to have real on ground impact.
  • Clearly, there are far more cost-effective, efficient, speedier and more inclusive ways to conserve grasslands and other open ecosystems of India.
• Objective 2
  • To use the cheetah as a charismatic flagship and umbrella species to garner resources for restoring open forest and savanna systems that will benefit biodiversity and ecosystem services from these ecosystems.
• Criticism
  • Asiatic lions and a variety of species already found in these ecosystems can very well perform this role and more.
  • First, the Government needs to remove grasslands from the category of wastelands and prevent further degradation, fragmentation and destruction of these habitats.
  • Investing directly in science-based restoration and inclusive protection of these ecosystems will yield results much more quickly and sustainably than the introduction of African cheetahs.
• Objective 3
  • To enhance India’s capacity to sequester carbon through ecosystem restoration activities in cheetah conservation areas and thereby contribute towards the global climate change mitigation goals.
• Criticism
  • Experts contend that this objective does not require the introduction of African cheetahs, at a cost of ₹40 crore, with the attendant risks of diseases which haven’t really been dealt with.

Current Status of the Project

• According to the Government, Kuno is ready to receive the cheetahs.
• It is being reported that Namibia wants India’s support for lifting the CITES ban on commercial trade of wildlife products, including ivory.
• The draft memorandum of understanding shared by Namibia reportedly contains a condition requiring India to support Namibia for “sustainable utilization of wildlife”.
• Negotiations are currently underway to finalize the MoU and it is expected to be signed by the end of March.
• The cheetahs are to be provided by the Cheetah Conservation Fund, an NGO, and not the Namibian government.
• Three to five cheetahs are expected to be part of the first group of cats and these are expected to arrive as early as May 2022 and be released in the wild by August 15.

Conclusion

• Given all the challenges, especially the lack of extensive areas extending in hundreds if not thousands of square kilometers with sufficient density of suitable prey, it is very unlikely that African cheetahs would ever establish themselves in India as a truly wild and self-perpetuating population.
• A likely unfortunate consequence of this initiative will be the diversion of scarce conservation resources, distraction from the real conservation priorities and a further delay in the translocation of lions to Kuno.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. Environmentalists are upset with the plan to bring vulnerable big cats from the African savanna to Kuno national park in M.P. In the light of the statement discuss the complexities of introducing African cheetahs to India. (250 Words).