One Year Of Cheetahs In India: No Deaths In Kuno Due To Radio Collars, Says Project Chief

September 17 marks the first anniversary of the arrival of Namibian Cheetahs to India in one of the world's most ambitious transcontinental species reintroduction programmes.

In the first bath, a total of eight Namibian Cheetahs were translocated to the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, followed by 12 more from South Africa in February this year.

AP

What is killing Cheetahs in India?

However, the highly ambitious project has come under heavy criticism for its lack of planning and poor execution, which many have blamed for the high number of fatalities.

Nine Cheetahs, including three of the four cubs born in India, have died so far, which many experts say is unacceptably high for a critically endangered species.

While the deaths have been attributed to different reasons, including pre-existing health issues, in-fighting and failure to adapt to new climatic conditions, two recent deaths have raised many eyebrows.

AFP

Cheetah did not die due to radio collars

Some have argued that the death of two Cheetahs in July was linked to a faulty radio collaring that caused infection.

However, SP Yadav, the Head of Project Cheetah, has said that "not a single cheetah died due to radio collars".

"There is no truth that any cheetah died due to radio collars. I want to say that monitoring is not possible in the wild without radio collars," he said.

Why Cheetahs are radio collared

Yadav, also a member secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), told ANI that carnivores and animals are monitored worldwide by radio collars, and this is a proven technology.

REUTERS

The cheetahs were fitted with radio collars before they were moved into the enclosure and later to their larger habitat in Kuno.

While a dedicated monitoring team has been tasked to track the movement of Cheetahs using data from the radio collars, it has not always been successful.

Nirav, a South African Cheetah, had gone 'missing' and was untraceable for 22 days before it was finally tracked down last month and relocated.

No hunting or poaching in Kuno

Yadav said no cheetah died at the Kuno National Park due to "hunting or poaching".

"Generally, in other countries, poaching and hunting leads to deaths, but our preparation was so good that not even a single cheetah has died due to hunting, poaching, or poisoning.. nor has any cheetah died due to human conflict..we have successfully achieved milestones in the past year," he said.

REUTERS

Project Cheetah, a success

Despite the setbacks, Yadav said the cheetah reintroduction project was a success.

"If we look at the last year from the point of view of success, then the benchmark we had set has been achieved," he said, adding that the survival rate of cheetahs is more than 50 per cent.

"There has never been an attempt to move a cheetah from one continent to another, and this was the first wild-to-wild translocation, and there were a lot of challenges in it. Usually, in such long-distance translocation, a cheetah may die because it is a sensitive animal, but no such death occurred here, and the translocation was very seamless," he said.

Reuters

Cheetahs in India

Cheetahs went extinct in India over five decades ago due to habitat loss and overhunting. The Maharaja of Korea hunted the three last wild cheetahs inside India in today's Chhattisgarh in 1947-48, and the Government of India declared them extinct in 1952.

As part of Project Cheetah, India and South Africa have signed an MoU to translocate 12 cheetahs to the country annually for the next eight to 10 years.

The next batch of South African Cheetahs is expected to arrive in India later this year or early 2024.

Reuters

Will Cheetahs get a new home

But with many, including the Supreme Court, suggesting that there should be a second home for Cheetahs in India, it is unclear if the new batch of Cheetahs will be in Kuno.

"Preparations are going on for the next batch of cheetahs at two sites; one is Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, where the habitat is suitable, and the work of making enclosure is going on at a very fast pace.. I hope that in November-December, the work of fencing and enclosure will be complete, and a decision will be taken to bring cheetahs there after inspection," Yadav said.

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