Environment

India welcomes 12 South African Cheetahs to Kuno National Park

Twelve Cheetahs from South Africa were successfully translocated to Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park on February 18. India is already home to eight African Cheetahs which were translocated from Namibia to India on September 17, 2022, in a historic move.

The High Commissioner of India to South Africa, Jaideep Sarkar was overseeing the sending off of 12 African Cheetahs being relocated to India, under the flagship project between South Africa & India. The translocation of the Cheetahs will contribute to the survival of the endangered species and achieve other ecological objectives.

How did the Cheetahs reach India?

On Friday, February 17, the twelve Cheetahs departed from South Africa for India as part of an initiative to expand the Cheetah meta-population and to reintroduce Cheetahs to a former range state following their local extinction due to over hunting and loss of habitat in the last century. The last cheetahs in the Indian wilderness were recorded in 1947 where three cheetahs were shot in the Sal (Shorea robusta) forests of Koriya District, Chhattisgarh State.

The translocation took place under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Governments of South Africa and India on Cooperation on the Re-introduction of Cheetah to India, earlier in January 2023. Translocation of animals is a common practice to conserve species and restore ecosystems.

Concerted efforts were made to select the cheetah for the reintroduction effort. All the12 cheetahs flown to India by Indian Airforce’s C-17 aircraft are wild born, have grown up amongst competing predators including lion, leopard, hyena and wild dogs.

Further, they were considered predator savvy and are expected to respond appropriately when they encounter a new predator guild in India that includes tigers, leopards, wolves, dholes, striped hyena, and sloth bears. The Cheetahs were made available by Phinda Game Reserve (3), Tswalu Kalahari Reserve (3), the Waterberg Biosphere (3), Kwandwe Game Reserve (2) and Mapesu Game Reserve (1) and their translocation is in line with IUCN Guidelines for Reintroductions and Other Conservation Translocation and in accordance with international veterinary standards and protocols.

This multi-disciplinary international programme is being coordinated by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) in collaboration with the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), South African National Parks (SANParks), The Cheetah Metapopulation Initiative, the Faculty of Veterinary Science of the University of Pretoria and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) in South Africa together with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India, the High Commission of India, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Madhya Pradesh Forest Department.

MoU on Cooperation on Re-introduction of Cheetah

The MoU facilitates cooperation between the two countries to establish a viable and secure cheetah population in India; promote conservation and ensures that expertise is shared and exchanged, and capacity built, to promote cheetah conservation. This includes human-wildlife conflict resolution, capture and translocation of wildlife and community participation in conservation in the two countries.

“It is because of South Africa’s successful conservation practices that our country is able to participate in a project such as this – to restore a species in a former range state and thus contribute to the future survival of the species,” said the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy. Following the import of the 12 cheetahs in February, the plan is to translocate a further 12 annually for the next eight to 10 years.

About ‘Project Cheetah’

‘Project Cheetah’ is a one-of-a-kind project in which a species is being restored in the country by bringing it from out of the country (from South Africa / Namibia). The subspecies of Cheetah namely, Asiatic Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus) got extinct in India and African Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus) and is being introduced in the country.

The Cheetah introduction project in Kuno National Park involves creating a 500-hectare predator-proof enclosure for a ‘soft release of the feline. The introduction would commence in a phased manner with few individuals after construction of the soft release enclosure and augmentation of protection, while other actions are underway. The first batch of Cheetah would be soft released in the enclosure with GPS / GSM or GPS / Satellite transmitters.

 

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