essay on project cheetah

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What is Project Cheetah? Who is behind it, Advantages, Challenges & more

Project cheetah is an initiative by the government to restore the extinct back in the indian woods. popular as the world’s first inter-continental large wild carnivore translocation project, the movement will revitalize the wildlife. read the article to know all about project cheetah, who is behind it, its advantages, challenges, and more.

What is Project Cheetah?

ये दुर्भाग्य रहा कि हमने 1952 में चीतों को देश से विलुप्त तो घोषित कर दिया, लेकिन उनके पुनर्वास के लिए दशकों तक कोई सार्थक प्रयास नहीं हुआ। आज आजादी के अमृतकाल में अब देश नई ऊर्जा के साथ चीतों के पुनर्वास के लिए जुट गया है: PM @narendramodi — PMO India (@PMOIndia) September 17, 2022

The Prime Minister making the historic move released Cheetahs at two different points in Kuno National Park. This initiative was part of a long series of measures to maintain sustainability and environmental protection in the last eight years. 

What are the advantages of introducing ‘Cheetahs’ back to the Indian forest?

The release of wild Cheetahs in Kuno National Park is part of a movement to revitalize and diversify India’s wildlife and habitat. The spotted cat will help to conserve biodiversity and enhance the ecosystem services like water security, carbon sequestration, and soil moisture conservation, resulting in various benefits for human existence.

What are the common challenges for Project Cheetah?

Climate change is quoted as one of the main reasons for the extinction of Cheetahs. The worldly appraised movement to bring back is surrounded by various challenges. The major threat to the survival of Cheetahs is competition with similar size predators and humans. 

According to experts from Africa, leopards are known to attack adult cheetahs whereas the cheetah cubs turn to prey for spotted hyenas. And Kuno National Park is home to 9 leopards per 100 sq kilometers.

Thinking of all these events, the government has ensured different measures for the safety and security of spotted cats. Along with forest officials, two elephants Lakshmi and Siddhnath are brought from Satpura Tiger Reserve for the protection of African Cheetah.

Following this, a group of students and villagers are also organized to sensitize people about Cheetahs, popularly known as ‘CheetahMitra’.

Get here current GK and GK quiz questions in English and Hindi for India , World, Sports and Competitive exam preparation. Download the Jagran Josh Current Affairs App .

• What is Project Cheetah? + 'Project Cheetah' is world's first inter-continental large wild carnivore translocation project.
• Who killed the last Indian Cheetah? + IFS Parveen Kaswan says that the King of Koriya hunted 3 cheetahs from the last lot of Indian cheetahs.
• Who released the cheetah in Kuno National Park? + The Indian prime minister released the cheetahs in Kuno National Park.
• Are cheetahs friendly? + Cheetahs are not an active threat to humans, also the spotted cat is less violent in terms of other existing members of the same family
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One year of Project Cheetah: Hits, misses and paradigm shift ahead

Twelve months since they arrived in india in september 2022, each of the three namibian males should have spent 10 months in the wild, and each of the five namibian females should have spent nine months in the wild..

A year after it was launched, Project Cheetah , India’s ambitious attempt to introduce African cats in the wild in the country, has claimed to have achieved short-term success on four counts: “50% survival of introduced cheetahs, establishment of home ranges, birth of cubs in Kuno”, and revenue generation for local communities.

The claims assessed

SURVIVAL: The test of survival is in the wild, not in captivity where animals are under protective care. According to India’s official Cheetah Action Plan, the male and female cats from both Namibia and South Africa were to spend two and three months respectively inside bomas (enclosures) before being released in the wild.

Therefore, in the 12 months since they arrived in India in September 2022, each of the three Namibian males should have spent 10 months in the wild, and each of the five Namibian females should have spent nine months in the wild. In all then, the eight cheetah imports from Namibia should have spent a cumulative 75 ‘cheetah months’ in the wild.

However, in reality, they spent just about 16 ‘cheetah months’ outside the bomas (Chart) .

The seven males and five females imported from South Africa arrived in mid-February 2023. By October, each male should have ideally spent six months, and each female five months, in the wild. Together, the 12 South African imports should have spent a cumulative 67 ‘cheetah months’ in the wild.

In reality, as the chart shows, they spent not even 11 ‘cheetah months’ in the wild.

Yet, the project lost 40% of its functional adult population. Of the 20 cats that arrived in India, six died (Dhatri and Sasha from Namibia; Suraj, Uday, Daksha, and Tejas from South Africa), and two were unfit for the wild. Four cubs were born in India, three of which died, and the fourth is being raised in captivity.

HOME RANGE: Only three cheetahs — Namibian imports Asha, Gaurav, and Shaurya — have spent more than three months at a stretch in the wild. Even they have been stuck inside bomas since July. It is unlikely any of the cats would have established “home ranges” in Kuno.

REPRODUCTION: The goal, as per the Action Plan, was: “Cheetah successfully reproduce in the wild”. However, Siyaya aka Jwala, the Namibian female that gave birth to four cubs in Kuno, was captive raised herself. She was unfit for the wild and her cubs were born inside a hunting boma.

LIVELIHOOD: The project has indeed generated a number of jobs and contracts for the local communities, and the price of land has appreciated significantly around Kuno. No human-cheetah conflict has been reported in the area.

Compromises, mistakes

Three of the eight Namibian cheetahs — Sasha, which was the project’s first casualty, and Jwala and Savannah alias Nabha, who were never released outside the bomas in Kuno — were captive-raised, reportedly as “research subjects”. They were offered to India to meet the “hard deadline” for the import.

To get the cheetahs , India promised to support Namibia for “sustainable utilisation and management of biodiversity…at international forums”. Weeks after the cheetahs arrived, India abandoned its decades-old stand by abstaining at the CITES vote against trade in elephant ivory.

In Kuno, captive breeding was attempted by putting the sexes together in hunting bomas. However, due to extremely low genetic variation within the species, a cheetah female is very selective in seeking out most distantly related males. That is why giving males access to a female not in heat can lead to violence.

The project got lucky with Jwala in March. But the gamble failed when two South African males killed the female Phinda alias Daksha in May.

The monitoring teams failed to intervene in time when three cubs succumbed to acute dehydration in May. Maggot infestation in multiple animals — which would have affected their gait — also went unnoticed until the festering wounds under their radio collars killed two in July.

The project experts had failed to factor in seasonal variation while sourcing animals from the southern hemisphere. The animals grew winter coats during the Indian monsoon, leading to prolonged wetness and infection.

Kuno’s carrying capacity

The project’s original goal, “to establish a free-ranging breeding population of cheetahs in and around Kuno”, has been diluted to “managing” a meta population through assisted dispersal.

The Cheetah Action Plan estimated “high probability of long-term cheetah persistence” within populations that exceed 50 individuals. Cheetal is the cheetah’s prime prey in Kuno where project scientists reported per-sq-km cheetal density of 5 (2006), 36 (2011), 52 (2012) and 69 (2013).

The feasibility report in 2010 estimated that 347 sq km of Kuno sanctuary could sustain 27 cheetahs, and the 3,000 sq km larger Kuno landscape could hold 70-100 animals.

After the project was revived in 2020, the Cheetah Action Plan assessed Kuno’s cheetal density at 38 per sq km which could sustain 21 cheetahs, while a larger landscape of 3,200 sq km could support 36. A single population of 50 cheetahs was no longer deemed feasible.

The Action Plan also offered another estimate based on distance-sampling — 23 cheetals per sq km — which would make it difficult to support even 36 cheetahs in the larger Kuno landscape.

Paradigm shift ahead

Since Kuno cannot support a genetically self-sustaining population, the project’s only option is a meta-population scattered over central and western India. But unlike leopards, which dominate this landscape, cheetahs cannot travel the distances between these pocket populations on their own.

A solution would be to borrow from the South African model that periodically translocates animals from one fenced reserve to another to maintain genetic viability. But if this “assisted dispersal” becomes the new normal, the case for maintaining forest connectivity that allows natural dispersal of wildlife will be severely weakened.

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Jay Mazoomdaar is an investigative reporter focused on offshore finance, equitable growth, natural resources management and biodiversity conservation. Over two decades, his work has been recognised by the International Press Institute, the Ramnath Goenka Foundation, the Commonwealth Press Union, the Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust, the Asian College of Journalism etc. Mazoomdaar’s major investigations include the extirpation of tigers in Sariska, global offshore probes such as Panama Papers, Robert Vadra’s land deals in Rajasthan, India’s dubious forest cover data, Vyapam deaths in Madhya Pradesh, mega projects flouting clearance conditions, Nitin Gadkari’s link to e-rickshaws, India shifting stand on ivory ban to fly in African cheetahs, the loss of indigenous cow breeds, the hydel rush in Arunachal Pradesh, land mafias inside Corbett, the JDY financial inclusion scheme, an iron ore heist in Odisha, highways expansion through the Kanha-Pench landscape etc. ... Read More

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Has India’s Reintroduction of Cheetahs Been a Success?

A cheetah released into Kuno National Park as part of India’s Project Cheetah, September 17, 2022. Photo: Press Information Bureau

India welcomed four new-born cheetah cubs in late March – more than 70 years after the world’s fastest land mammal was declared officially extinct there.

The cubs’ parents, Siyaya and Freddie, are two of eight rehabilitated cheetahs brought from Namibia to India’s Kuno National Park (KNP) in the central state of Madhya Pradesh last September.

Another 12 cheetahs were brought from South Africa in February, in an agreement between the two countries, and put into quarantine enclosures.

India has made ambitious attempts to reintroduce the feline species. The intercontinental movement of the animals is part of the country’s cheetah restoration initiative known as “Project Cheetah.” The Indian government hopes 50 cheetahs will be brought in from African countries to various national parks over the next five years.

“Project Cheetah will continue. While we do understand and accept there will be losses associated with introducing these cheetahs, we also look forward to celebrating the first Indian cubs born to a Namibian cheetah,” said the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), the international organisation that facilitated the historic translocation.

India prepares for cheetah population

Today, some 8,000 cheetahs are found in southern and eastern Africa, particularly in Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, and Tanzania, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). A tiny population of another subspecies, the Asiatic cheetah, is found in Iran.

Before the arrival of the felines in India, expert teams from Namibia and South Africa trained Indian forest officers and wildlife experts on cheetah handling, breeding, rehabilitation, medical treatment and conservation.

Pradnya Giradkar, India’s first cheetah conservation specialist, said bringing back the species has been a huge challenge.

“Cheetah is the only animal in recorded history to become extinct from India due to unnatural causes. Therefore, scientific studies on the ecological interaction between habitat composition, habitat quality and demography of cheetahs and their prey are required to maintain viability,” Giridkar told DW .

She welcomed the latest cubs. “Increases in the number of reproductive events with longevity are key processes that influence annual individual performance that follows multiple generations. Of course, reproductive success depends on phenotypic, environmental, and genetic factors.”

Wildlife experts concerned over inadequate space

The announcement of the cubs’ arrival in March came just days after one of the Namibian cheetahs, a female named Sasha, died of kidney disease.

Ravi Chellam, a wildlife biologist and CEO at Metastring Foundation, said that as much as the death of an adult female does not signal the failure of Project Cheetah, the birth of these cubs does not indicate its success either.

“We should also remember that the mating took place within a fenced area of less than six square kilometers and the cubs were also born within this enclosure. This project is based on poor science, it’s is in conflict with stated national conservation priorities and is also at odds with the rule of law,” Chellam told DW .

According to the wildlife biologist, there is a fundamental problem with the action plan guiding the introduction of African cheetahs in India, as it doesn’t recognize the lack of adequate space for the animals to establish a viable population.

Last October, eight wildlife scientists expressed concerns in the research journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, that India’s cheetah reintroduction plan hinged on an unsupported claim that the country had sufficient and suitable space for cheetahs. They further argued that the plan ignores crucial scientific findings from important recent demographic studies on free-ranging cheetahs.

According to Chellam, “India has erred…by bringing the cats much before habitats of adequate size and quality were ready. This prolonged captivity will have negative impacts on the cats. I sincerely hope that we do not import more cheetahs from Africa until we have secure and good quality habitats to host them.”

Lack of predators may ensure cub survival rate

Yadvendradev Jhala, a conservationist and former dean at the Wildlife Institute of India, is one of the architects behind the cheetah reintroduction project. Jhala says that with 20 cheetahs from two different countries, India has a diverse cheetah genetic composition and if breeding was done judiciously, it could maintain this diversity for posterity.

“Cheetahs breed rapidly in a conducive environment. The birth of the cubs and mating by three females shows that the conditions in Kuno are ideal for them. It is the survival of cubs that is a concern. About 50% of cheetah cubs survive in the wild where they succumb to larger predators,” Jhala told DW .

“But in semi-wild conditions without predators like in the enclosure of Kuno, cub survival rates can be as high as 90-95%. This will help increase our cheetah populations indigenously and reduce our dependency on import,” he added.

The cheetahs at the KNP have been fitted with satellite collars and remain in a fenced holding area as they adapt to their new environment. Scientists are tracking their movements and monitoring their health.

The cheetahs will be released into the wild once conservationists decide they have fully adapted to local conditions.

This article was originally published on DW .

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What is Project Cheetah?

The nation is waiting to celebrate the arrival of cheetahs from africa. most of us may have never seen a cheetah as it went extinct from india about 70 years ago. here's more about project cheetah.

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India's plan to reintroduce Cheetah follows success in other such projects

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First Published: Sep 16 2022 | 7:00 AM IST

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Celebrating the One-Year Milestone of Project Cheetah: Triumphs, Challenges, and Renewed Commitment

• by CCF Staff September 17, 2023

OTJIWARONGO, Namibia – 17 September 2023 – Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) is joining with partners and supporters around the world in celebrating the first anniversary of Project Cheetah. While the initial year of the historic reintroduction of cheetahs in India has been marked by setbacks, the Project Cheetah team remains dedicated to their mission. While the cheetahs await re-release, CCF has offered advice and new strategies to help ensure the successful reintegration of these majestic creatures into their natural habitat.

Dr. Laurie Marker, Founder and Executive Director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, expressed the significance of this achievement, saying, “Bringing back cheetahs to India was a daring endeavor, full of challenges. We celebrated the birth of the first litter of four cubs born to one of the females from Namibia and the additional arrival of a group of 12 cheetahs from South Africa. Despite setbacks and difficulties that prompted a decision to retrieve the animals, we are leveraging these experiences to reassess strategies before the cheetahs are released once again.”

Over 12 years in the making, Project Cheetah came to fruition on 17 September of 2022 when CCF staff traveled to India to deliver a gift from the Namibian government: eight wild cheetahs. Namibia considered the “cheetah capitol of the world” with the highest density of wild cheetah, generously donated the first eight individuals to establish a new meta-population in India. The historic initiative is part of a larger, multi-year agreement to aid in the conservation of the species. The cheetahs, once a vital part of India’s ecosystem, faced a tragic decline, with the last recorded sighting in the 1950s, marking their local extinction. However, the vision of reintroducing these charismatic animals emerged, driven by a collective determination to restore ecological balance and preserve India’s biodiversity.

“As CCF’s International Patron, the project is on track and Namibia is proud to be a part of expanding the cheetahs’ territory into Namibia.” stated The Honorable Professor Peter Katjavivi, Namibia’s Speaker of the National Assembly.

“Bringing the cheetah back to India is an ambitious project of Government of India that intends to reestablish the species in its historic range. In this important species conservation project, the contribution of Republic of Namibia and Cheetah Conservation Fund has been immense and commendable. CCF has been instrumental in translocation of founding population of cheetahs to India and also in training the officials of Kuno National Park in cheetah management issues.” stated Dr. S. P. Yadav, ADGF (Project Tiger & Elephant) & Member Secretary, National Tiger Conservation Authority

The reintroduction process posed formidable challenges, involving the task of acclimating wild cheetahs to a habitat that had not seen this cat species for 70 years. Since the inception of the program, dedicated teams have tirelessly worked to create an environment conducive to the cheetah’s natural instincts. This remarkable journey was marked by both setbacks and successes. Despite the challenges, there has also been many positive outcomes including, the confirmation that the reintroduced cheetahs are hunting native prey species. It is indeed a matter of great management outcome to note that Siyaya and Savanah, two female Cheetahs which were wild caught and had spent substantial time in captivity in Namibia, have now remarkably adopted to the wilderness on Indian soil and have been independently hunting. As part of the rewilding process since they were released, they have shown promising signs and would be fit for release into the wild in due course following due diligence.

There has been no human-wildlife conflict incidents and the communities surrounding Kuno National Park have been incredibly accepting of having cheetahs living in such close proximity. With close to 90 leopards also residing in the park, there has been no reported conflicts between the cheetahs and other predator species. Cheetahs often face significant threats from other predators like hyenas and leopards, yet the presence of leopards has not deterred the cheetah’s integration back into their former range.

A pivotal aspect of monitoring the reintroduced cheetahs is the use of GPS radio tracking collars. These technological marvels have enabled researchers and conservationists to gather essential data about the cheetah’s movements, habits, and interactions, offering invaluable insights into their integration back into the wilds of India. While concerns have been raised about the potential impact of the collars, their role in the overall success of this reintroduction effort cannot be overstated.

CCF’s Conservation Biologist and Release Specialist, Eli Walker emphasized the significant impact collars have on the study of cheetahs in the wild, stating, “The tracking collars remain critical to the success of the project. Without them, no post-release monitoring is possible and therefore the animals’ progress in the wild of India would not be possible to determine. Additionally, without the collars, post-release management and support of the released cheetahs would not be possible.”

There are limited alternatives to tracking collars and the emergence of a direct replacement for this technology is not imminent. With the safety of cheetahs at the forefront of concerns, CCF’s cheetah release and management experts are helping the Project Cheetah team to address and find solutions, ensuring that when the cheetahs are released again, the risk of collar usage is mitigated.

As we celebrate this extraordinary milestone, it serves as a reminder of the urgency to conserve and protect the natural world. Dr. Marker remarked, “The return of the cheetahs to India is not just about their survival; it is a testament to our commitment to safeguard the web of life that sustains us all. We must recognize that our actions have repercussions that extend far beyond our own lifetimes.” Reflecting on this remarkable journey, Dr. Marker’s words resonate hope: “The anniversary of the cheetah’s return to India is a celebration of the boundless possibilities that emerge when humans unite for nature.”

Cheetah Conservation Fund

Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) is the global leader in research and conservation of cheetahs and dedicated to saving the cheetah in the wild. CCF is an international non-profit organization headquartered in Namibia, with a base in Somaliland and a partner field organization in Kenya as well as having fundraising operations in the United States, Canada, Australia, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom and a partner organization in Germany. Founded in 1990, CCF is celebrating 33 years, making it the longest running and most successful cheetah conservation organization. For more information, please visit www.cheetah.org .

Project Cheetah

The Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), in partnership with India’s Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, Wildlife Institute of India, the National Tiger Conservation Authority, and the governments of Namibia and South Africa, embarked on a collaborative reintroduction effort to reintroduce the majestic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) back into India’s Kuno National Park, after having been extinct for over 70 years. Project Cheetah’s goal is to establish a viable cheetah meta-population in India that allows the cheetah to perform its functional and historical role as a top predator and to provide space for the expansion of the cheetah population within its historical range thereby contributing to its global conservation efforts.

MEDIA CONTACT: For media inquiries, please contact: Teresia Robitschko [email protected] +491782722347 or Dr. Laurie Marker [email protected] +264811247887.

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Home / Current Affairs / One year of Project Cheetah: Hits, misses and paradigm shift ahead

One year of Project Cheetah: Hits, misses and paradigm shift ahead

• By : Author Desk
• Updated : November 16, 2023

For Latest Updates, Current Affairs & Knowledgeable Content.

Context- A year after it was launched, Project Cheetah , India’s ambitious attempt to introduce African cats in the wild in the country, has claimed to have achieved short-term success on four counts: “50% survival of introduced cheetahs, establishment of home ranges, birth of cubs in Kuno”, and revenue generation for local communities.

The claims assessed

• The test of survival is in the wild, not in captivity where animals are under protective care. According to India’s official Cheetah Action Plan, the male and female cats from both Namibia and South Africa were to spend two and three months respectively inside bomas (enclosures) before being released in the wild.
• Therefore, in the 12 months since they arrived in India in September 2022, each of the three Namibian males should have spent 10 months in the wild, and each of the five Namibian females should have spent nine months in the wild.
• In all then, the eight cheetah imports from Namibia should have spent a cumulative 75 ‘cheetah months’ in the wild.

(Credits- Indian Express)

• The seven males and five females imported from South Africa arrived in mid-February 2023. By October, each male should have ideally spent six months, and each female five months, in the wild. Together, the 12 South African imports should have spent a cumulative 67 ‘cheetah months’ in the wild.
• In reality, as the chart shows, they spent not even 11 ‘cheetah months’ in the wild.
• Yet, the project lost 40% of its functional adult population. Of the 20 cats that arrived in India, six died (Dhatri and Sasha from Namibia; Suraj, Uday, Daksha, and Tejas from South Africa), and two were unfit for the wild. Four cubs were born in India, three of which died, and the fourth is being raised in captivity.

HOME RANGE:

• Only three cheetahs — Namibian imports Asha, Gaurav, and Shaurya — have spent more than three months at a stretch in the wild. Even they have been stuck inside bomas since July. It is unlikely any of the cats would have established “home ranges” in Kuno.

REPRODUCTION:

• The goal, as per the Action Plan, was: “Cheetah successfully reproduce in the wild”. However, Siyaya aka Jwala, the Namibian female that gave birth to four cubs in Kuno, was captive raised herself. She was unfit for the wild and her cubs were born inside a hunting boma.

LIVELIHOOD:

• The project has indeed generated a number of jobs and contracts for the local communities, and the price of land has appreciated significantly around Kuno. No human-cheetah conflict has been reported in the area.

Compromises, mistakes

• Three of the eight Namibian cheetahs — Sasha, which was the project’s first casualty, and Jwala and Savannah alias Nabha, who were never released outside the bomas in Kuno — were captive-raised, reportedly as “research subjects”. They were offered to India to meet the “hard deadline” for the import.
• To get the cheetahs, India promised to support Namibia for “sustainable utilisation and management of biodiversity…at international forums”. Weeks after the cheetahs arrived, India abandoned its decades-old stand by abstaining at the CITES vote against trade in elephant ivory.
• In Kuno, captive breeding was attempted by putting the sexes together in hunting bomas. However, due to extremely low genetic variation within the species, a cheetah female is very selective in seeking out most distantly related males.
• The project got lucky with Jwala in March. But the gamble failed when two South African males killed the female Phinda alias Daksha in May.
• The monitoring teams failed to intervene in time when three cubs succumbed to acute dehydration in May. Maggot infestation in multiple animals — which would have affected their gait — also went unnoticed until the festering wounds under their radio collars killed two in July.
• The project experts had failed to factor in seasonal variation while sourcing animals from the southern hemisphere. The animals grew winter coats during the Indian monsoon, leading to prolonged wetness and infection.

Kuno’s carrying capacity

• The project’s original goal, “to establish a free-ranging breeding population of cheetahs in and around Kuno”, has been diluted to “managing” a meta population through assisted dispersal.
• The Cheetah Action Plan estimated “high probability of long-term cheetah persistence” within populations that exceed 50 individuals.The feasibility report in 2010 estimated that 347 sq km of Kuno sanctuary could sustain 27 cheetahs, and the 3,000 sq km larger Kuno landscape could hold 70-100 animals.
• After the project was revived in 2020, the Cheetah Action Plan assessed Kuno’s cheetal density at 38 per sq km which could sustain 21 cheetahs, while a larger landscape of 3,200 sq km could support 36. A single population of 50 cheetahs was no longer deemed feasible.

Paradigm shift ahead

• Since Kuno cannot support a genetically self-sustaining population, the project’s only option is a meta-population scattered over central and western India. But unlike leopards, which dominate this landscape, cheetahs cannot travel the distances between these pocket populations on their own.

Way Forward- A solution would be to borrow from the South African model that periodically translocates animals from one fenced reserve to another to maintain genetic viability. But if this “assisted dispersal” becomes the new normal, the case for maintaining forest connectivity that allows natural dispersal of wildlife will be severely weakened.

Syllabus- GS-3; Environment

Source- Indian Express

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Essay on Cheetah

Students are often asked to write an essay on Cheetah in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Cheetah

The cheetah: a speedy marvel.

Cheetahs are the world’s fastest land animals. They live in Africa’s grasslands and are known for their slender bodies and spotted coats.

Speed and Hunting

Cheetahs can reach speeds of up to 60 miles per hour! They use their speed to chase down and catch prey, usually small to medium-sized animals.

Threats to Cheetahs

Sadly, cheetahs face many threats. Habitat loss and illegal wildlife trade are major concerns. Efforts are ongoing to protect these amazing creatures and their habitats.

Also check:

• 10 Lines on Cheetah
• Paragraph on Cheetah

250 Words Essay on Cheetah

The majestic cheetah: an overview.

The cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus, a member of the Felidae family, is renowned for its incredible speed, reaching up to 60-70 miles per hour in short bursts. This speed, combined with its agility, makes it a formidable predator in the wild, primarily in Africa’s grasslands.

Adaptations for Speed

The cheetah’s slender, lightweight body and long legs are perfectly designed for speed. Its large nasal passages enable quick oxygen intake, while the adrenal gland produces adrenaline to fuel its explosive sprints. Interestingly, the cheetah’s claws are semi-retractable, providing additional grip, akin to a runner’s spikes.

Endangered Status

Sadly, the cheetah is currently classified as a vulnerable species. Their numbers have dwindled due to habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict, and illegal wildlife trade. Efforts to conserve these magnificent creatures are ongoing, with initiatives focused on habitat preservation and community education.

Ecological Importance

As apex predators, cheetahs play a crucial role in maintaining the balance of their ecosystems. They control the population of their prey, preventing overgrazing and promoting biodiversity. Their decline could disrupt these delicate systems, underscoring the importance of their conservation.

The Cheetah’s Future

The future of the cheetah lies in the hands of conservationists and the wider human population. Through concerted efforts to protect their habitats and combat illegal trade, there is hope for the survival of this remarkable species. The cheetah’s story is a poignant reminder of our shared responsibility to protect Earth’s biodiversity.

The cheetah is not just an embodiment of speed and grace; it is a symbol of the wild’s fragility and resilience. Understanding and appreciating the cheetah is crucial for its survival and the health of our planet.

500 Words Essay on Cheetah

Introduction.

The cheetah, scientifically known as Acinonyx jubatus, is an iconic species primarily recognized for its exceptional speed. As the fastest land mammal, the cheetah serves as a symbol of agility and grace. However, beyond their speed, cheetahs are fascinating creatures with unique biology, behavior, and ecological significance.

Physical Attributes and Adaptations

Cheetahs are slender-bodied animals, designed for speed. They weigh between 75-150 pounds, with a body length of up to 4.5 feet and a tail length of up to 33 inches. Their coats are typically a yellowish-tan or rufous to greyish white, with black spots. The most striking feature is the ‘tear mark’ running from the inner corner of each eye down to the sides of the mouth.

Their physical adaptations are specifically tailored for speed. The large nostrils and adrenal glands facilitate rapid oxygen intake and adrenaline production, respectively. The lightweight frame and long, flexible spine enable them to stretch their bodies while running at high speeds. The non-retractable claws provide grip, and the specialized pads act like tire treads for traction.

Behavior and Lifestyle

Cheetahs are diurnal animals, hunting primarily during the day to avoid competition with nocturnal predators like lions and hyenas. Their hunting strategy is a blend of stealth and speed; they use their excellent eyesight to spot prey from a distance, stalk them, and then unleash their explosive speed in a final sprint.

Cheetahs are not as social as lions, but they do form groups, particularly males. Male siblings often form coalitions that stay together for life, defending territories and hunting together. Females, on the other hand, are more solitary.

Reproduction and Lifespan

Female cheetahs reach sexual maturity at around 20-24 months, and they can give birth to three to five cubs after a gestation period of approximately 90 days. Mother cheetahs raise their cubs alone, teaching them survival skills until they become independent at around 18 months.

The lifespan of cheetahs in the wild is typically 10-12 years, although in captivity, they can live up to 20 years. However, cub mortality is high due to predation and disease.

Conservation Status and Threats

Cheetahs are currently listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Their population is decreasing due to habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict, illegal wildlife trade, and climate change.

Conservation efforts are underway to protect and increase the cheetah population. These include habitat restoration, anti-poaching initiatives, community education, and scientific research to better understand cheetah biology and behavior.

Cheetahs are remarkable creatures, embodying a perfect blend of power and grace. Their unique adaptations make them a fascinating subject of study. However, their declining numbers highlight the urgent need for effective conservation strategies. Understanding and appreciating these majestic animals is the first step towards ensuring their survival and the health of the ecosystems they inhabit.

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A passage to India – how the journey of southern Africa’s cheetah divided the experts

On Saturday, the 18 th of February, 12 more southern African cheetahs landed in India to join eight of their cohorts in Kuno National Park. Theoretically, these trailblazing cheetahs are intended to herald the long-term return of wild cheetahs to India. This project has divided conservationists along academic, ethical and philosophical lines. Critics have labelled the reintroduction “ecologically unsound”, “a vanity project”, and “grossly expensive”. Equally, experts with abundant experience in cheetah conservation have thrown their weight behind the project, highlighting the importance of restoring cheetahs to parts of their historic range and the potential benefits to Indian conservation.

Cheetahs have been extinct in India for over seven decades, but plans for their return have been afoot for many years. The first eight individuals from Namibia (after a period in quarantine) made the journey to Kuno National Park in September 2022. Amid the media furore over Project Cheetah, two groups of highly esteemed scientists – one for and one against – penned their opinions in correspondence published in Nature Ecology & Evolution . Each article neatly summarises the arguments put forward in various publications since the arrival of the first cheetahs. Read together, they highlight the complexities of the issues at play.

The argument against Project Cheetah

The first article, published in December 2022, is titled “Introducing African cheetahs to India is an ill-advised conservation attempt” and was authored by a group of experienced big-cat conservationists and scientists (Gopalaswamy et al., 2022). Many of the authors have been critical of the project since its inception. They argue that the costly plan has the potential to serve as a “distraction” instead of aiding global cheetah conservation.

Though there has yet to be scientific consensus on subspecies divisions, the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group recognised four distinct subspecies of cheetah. Of these, the Southeast African cheetah ( Acinonyx jubatus jubatus ) and the Asiatic cheetah ( Acinonyx jubatus venaticus ) are relevant to the debate at hand. Before their extinction, the cheetahs found in India would have been Asiatic cheetahs. At present, the only remaining Asiatic cheetahs are found in Iran and are classified as Critically Endangered. In the opinion of Gopalaswamy et al. (2022), there are unknown ecological, disease and genetic risks associated with replacing Asiatic cheetahs with African ones.

The authors indicate that the plan to translocate cheetahs from Africa to India is based on three unsubstantiated claims. The first is that cheetahs have run out of space in Africa, the second is that India has sufficient space and habitat to support a cheetah population, and, finally, that translocations have successfully restored cheetah range in the past.

They cite contemporary research from the Maasai Mara from one of the authors (Dr Femke Broekhuis) that shows that cheetahs utilise disproportionately large home ranges and occur at low population densities. The authors argue that this, along with (presumably) declining cheetah numbers in Africa, makes them unsuitable as a source population for translocations. Based on this research, they also believe that the studies in Kuno National Park for the action plan may have substantially overestimated the carrying capacity. According to the action plan, the calculated carrying capacity was based on a density estimate from Namibia, which Gopalaswamy et al. (2022) suggest is outdated and possibly inaccurate.

The site of the first cheetah translocations – Kuno National Park – is a 748 km 2 (74,800 hectares) park located just over 300km south of Delhi. It is unfenced and surrounded by densely populated villages and farms. Gopalaswamy et al. (2022) imply that the size and surrounding anthropogenic pressures (along with some 500 feral cattle within the park) make it a poor habitat choice for the cheetahs. Furthermore, they argue that the other destinations named in the action plan for future translocations are equally inappropriate.

Gopalaswamy et al. (2022) also distinguish between “free-ranging” and “fenced-in” cheetahs. Most cheetahs in South Africa and many from Namibia come from smaller fenced reserves. These animals cannot naturally immigrate or emigrate, so the populations must be intensively managed. The cheetahs sourced for the translocations came from such a setup. The authors write that to the best of their knowledge, they know of no reintroduction successes where fenced-in cheetahs have been successfully reintroduced into an unfenced area, even within Africa. They argue that where these fenced-in populations are managed independently without achieving self-sustaining populations, there will be an urgency to find release sites that could “trigger unplanned, hastily executed translocation programmes”.

They write that they anticipate that “adopting such a speculative and unscientific approach will lead to human-cheetah conflicts, death of the introduced cheetahs or both, and will undermine other science-based species recovery efforts, both globally and within India”.

Instead, the scientists call on India to redirect the nearly US$ 60 million total cost of Project Cheetah towards global cheetah conservation efforts, including habitat protection and connectivity and enhancing human-cheetah relations in Iran, Africa, or both. Alternatively, they suggest revising the current action plan to reintroduce cheetahs to India using a “science-based approach” to rigorously assess the policies and methods utilised. The focus should be securing India’s threatened savannahs and grasslands and avoiding the disruption of other ongoing conservation efforts, such as the reintroduction of Asiatic lions.

They conclude that “there is an urgent need for international bodies, such as the IUCN and the wider community of cheetah and carnivore biologists, to re-evaluate the purpose and practice of such intercontinental, large carnivore translocation efforts”.

The argument for Project Cheetah

In response to this correspondence, a group of vets, scientists, ecologists and cheetah conservationists published their dissenting opinion in an article titled “The case for the reintroduction of cheetahs to India” (Tordiffe et al., 2023). Many of the authors have been intimately involved in the project since its inception, and all were involved in the scientific advisement on both the Indian and southern African sides of the operation.

Tordiffe et al. (2023) argue that cheetahs once occupied an ecological niche in India, which has been left vacant since their extinction. They cite previous research showing that the return of carnivores is particularly important in restoring the functional ecology of ecosystems. They suggest that the widespread human-wildlife conflict and poaching that precipitated the extinction of cheetahs in India have since been controlled through legislation and effective enforcement. Furthermore, suitable habitat, prey availability and anthropogenic pressures were thoroughly assessed before selecting Kuno National Park and other protected areas as potential reintroduction sites.

According to the Project Cheetah action plan, approximately 100,000 km 2 (10 million hectares) of legally protected reserves in India lie within the historic range of the cheetah and could potentially support breeding cheetah populations. Tordiffe et al. (2023) disagree with Gopalaswamy et al.’s (2022) approach of using East African cheetah population densities to estimate the potential carrying capacities of the selected release sites in India. Instead, they suggest that the biomass of suitable prey will determine such densities.

In answer to Gopalaswamy et al.’s (2022) discussion around the Asiatic cheetahs, Tordiffe et al. (2023) point to the IUCN guidelines for population reintroductions. These require that potential source populations have adequate genetic diversity and that removing a determined number of individuals would not compromise the source population. Given the recent announcement by the Iranian Department of Environment that only 12 confirmed Asiatic cheetahs remain, there is no way they could be utilised for this initiative. Instead, Tordiffe et al. (2023) argue that the southern African cheetah population has the greatest documented genetic diversity and is sufficiently large to supply founding individuals without negatively affecting their numbers.

The authors highlight that unpublished data indicates that the managed cheetah metapopulation in southern Africa of around 500 cheetahs is currently growing at a rate of 8.8% per year. These animals occur predominantly on smaller, fenced reserves, and translocation is vital to this metapopulation management. In South Africa alone, population viability analysis indicates that this population could sustain the removal of 29 individuals without detriment. Though they acknowledge that there are still areas in Africa that could theoretically support reintroduced cheetahs, the authors suggest that few of the sites are feasible in reality. They suggest that there are several socioeconomic, cultural and religious differences that contribute to a greater tolerance for large predators in India than in Africa, as evidenced by other large carnivore conservation initiatives in India.

Tordiffe et al. (2023) also refute the suggestion that there have been no successful translocations of “fenced-in” cheetahs into “free-ranging” environments. They cite the release of 22 cheetahs into the unfenced Zambezi Delta in Mozambique in August 2021, along with the release of 36 cheetahs onto Namibian farmlands, including some unfenced properties. With respect to the risk of disease transmission, three of the authors (and other experts) have conducted a comprehensive disease risk analysis. Though most diseases were judged to be of low or very low risk, those deemed medium risk are managed through a combination of vaccination programmes and antiparasitic treatments.

Finally, the response concedes that the suggestion by Gopalaswamy et al. (2022) that money for the project might be better invested in other cheetah conservation initiatives is “intriguing”. However, the authors suggest that this is unlikely, given that governments tend to prioritise conservation projects in their own jurisdictions.

Though Tordiffe et al. (2023) highlight the cheetahs’ potential role as an umbrella species that will benefit the “broader biodiversity conservation and livelihood goals in India”, they acknowledge that this must be evaluated once the project is completed.

Final thoughts

On the 26 th of January 2023, the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment confirmed that India and South Africa had signed a Memorandum of Understanding. Under the terms of the MoU, 100 more cheetahs will be translocated to India over the next ten years to establish a healthy and diverse population. At the outset, there are likely to be significant losses. If the project is successful, it will likely be counted as one of the most daring conservation initiatives of the 21 st century. And more importantly, cheetahs will once again stalk the grasslands and savannahs of India. If it fails, the cheetah will die, millions of dollars will be lost, and the project will be consigned to the learning curve of history.

Few meaningful conservation initiatives could ever be labelled as risk-free. With ever-shrinking wild spaces and changing climates, conservation is facing a turning point. Considered interference and substantial risks may be necessary to protect the earth’s remaining megafauna and reverse the mistakes of the past. But with these decisions will come complex ethical debates that cut to the heart of the intrinsic value of an animal, the definition of “natural”, the importance of genetics and the balance of utilitarianism. There are unlikely to be easy answers or universal agreement.

Gopalaswamy, A. M.  et al.  (2022) “ Introducing African Cheetahs to India Is an Ill-Advised Conservation Attempt ,”  Nature Ecology & Evolution

Tordiffe, A.S.W. et al. (2023) “ The case for the reintroduction of cheetahs to India ,” Nature Ecology & Evolution

Jhala, Y.V., et al. (2021). Action Plan for Introduction of Cheetah in India . Wildlife Institute of India, National Tiger Conservation Authority and Madhya Pradesh Forest Department.

Read more about the Cheetah Conservation Fund , that helped assist wildlife authorities in India with Project Cheetah.

Read more on all there is to know about cheetahs here .

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Project Cheetah

On the directions of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), a team of experts comprising of Adrian Tordiffe,  Veterinary Wildlife Specialist, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa; Vincent van dan Merwe, Manager, Cheetah Metapopulation Project, The Metapopulation Initiative, South Africa; Qamar Qureshi, Lead Scientist, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun and Amit Mallick, Inspector General of Forests, National Tiger Conservation Authority, New Delhi visited the Kuno National Park on 30 April, 2023 and reviewed the current status of the Project Cheetah. The team examined all aspects of the project and submitted a comprehensive report on the way forward. The team observed that  twenty cheetahs were successfully translocated to Kuno National Park (KNP) in September 2022 and February 2023 from southern Africa in the initial phase of an ambitious project to re-establish the species within its historical range in India. The project hopes to benefit global cheetah conservation efforts by providing up to 100 000 km 2 of habitat in legally protected areas and an additional 600 000 km 2 of habitable landscape for the species. Cheetahs fulfil a unique ecological role within the carnivore hierarchy and their restoration is expected to enhance ecosystem health in India. As a charismatic species, the cheetah can also benefit India’s broader conservation goals by improving general protection and ecotourism in areas that have been previously neglected.

It is not surprising that a project of this magnitude and complexity would face many challenges. This is the first intercontinental reintroduction of a wild, large carnivore species and therefore there is no comparable historical precedent. Due to careful planning and execution, all twenty cheetahs survived the initial capture, quarantine and lengthy transport to the purpose-built quarantine and larger acclimatization camps in KNP in Madhya Pradesh. Releasing the cheetahs into free-roaming conditions poses substantial risks. Like Kuno, no Protected Areas in India are fenced. Animals are thus free to move in and out of the park as they wish. Cheetahs, like other large carnivores are known to range widely during the initial few months after being reintroduced into unfamiliar open systems. These movements are unpredictable and depend on many factors. After several months the cheetahs should establish their own communication networks and settle down in relatively fixed home ranges. It is important that individual cheetahs do not become totally isolated from the reintroduced group during this phase as they will then not participate in breeding and will thus be genetically isolated. Two points should also be noted regarding the carrying capacity of cheetahs in KNP; Firstly, it is impossible to determine the precise carrying cheetah capacity in KNP until the cheetahs have properly established their home ranges and secondly, the home ranges of cheetahs can overlap substantially depending on the prey density and several other factors. While many have made predictions about the anticipated carrying capacity of cheetahs in KNP based on other ecosystems in Namibia and East Africa, the actual number of animals that the reserve can accommodate can only be assessed after the animals are released and have established home ranges. Cheetah home-range sizes and population densities vary tremendously for different cheetah populations in Africa and for obvious reasons, we do not have useful spatial ecology data for cheetahs in India yet.

To date, four of the cheetahs from Namibia have been released from the fenced acclimatization camps into free-ranging conditions in KNP. Two males (Gaurav and Shaurya) have stayed within the park and have not shown any interest in exploring the landscape beyond the borders of the park. A female named Aasha has made two exploratory excursions to the East of KNP beyond the buffer zone but has remained within the broader Kuno landscape and has not ventured into human-dominated areas. Another male (Pawan), explored areas well beyond the boundaries of the park on two occasions, venturing into farmland near the border with Utter Pradesh during his second excursion. He was darted by the veterinary team and returned to an acclimatization camp in KNP. All the cheetahs are fitted with satellite collars that record their location twice a day or more depending upon the situation. Monitoring teams have been employed to follow the released cheetahs 24 hours a day in rotating shifts, keeping some distance to allow the cheetah its normal behaviour and ranging. These teams record any information on the prey hunted by the animals and any other information on their behaviour that may be of importance. It is important that this intensive monitoring continues until the individual cheetahs have established home ranges.

The team inspected most of the cheetahs from a distance and evaluated the current procedures and protocols for managing the animals. All the cheetahs were in good physical condition, making kills at regular intervals and displaying natural behaviours. After discussion with the Forest Department officials in KNP they agreed on the next steps to be taken going forward.

• Five more cheetahs (three females and two males) will be released from the acclimatisation camps into free-roaming conditions in KNP before the onset of the monsoon rains in June. Individuals were chosen for release based on their behavioural characteristics and approachability by the monitoring teams. These released cheetahs will be monitored in the same way as those that have already been released.
• The remaining 10 cheetahs will remain in the acclimatisation camps for the duration of the monsoon season. Certain internal gates will be left open to allow these cheetahs to utilise more space in the acclimatisation camps and for interactions between specific males and females to take place.
• Once the monsoon rains are over in September, the situation will be reassessed. Further releases into KNP or surrounding areas will be done in a planned manner to Gandhisagar and other areas as per the Cheetah Conservation Action Plan to establish meta population.
• Cheetahs will be allowed to move out of KNP and will not necessarily be recaptured unless they venture into areas where they are in significant danger. Their degree of isolation will be assessed once they settle down and appropriate action will to be taken to enhance their connectivity to the group.
• The female who gave birth in March, will remain in her camp to hunt and raise her four cubs.

Information on the recent deaths of two cheetahs in the project:

• Sasha, a six-year-old female from Namibia became ill in late January. Her blood results indicated that she had chronic renal insufficiency. She was successfully stabilised by the veterinary team at KNP, but later died in March. A post-mortem confirmed the initial diagnosis. Chronic renal failure is a common problem in captive cheetahs and many other captive felid species. Sasha was born in the wild in Namibia but spent a large proportion of her life in captive conditions at CCF. The underlying causes of renal disease in felids are unknown, but generally the condition progresses slowly, taking several months or even years before clinical symptoms manifest. The disease is not infectious and cannot be transmitted from one animal to another. It therefore poses no risk to any of the other cheetahs in the project. The prognosis for the condition is very poor and there are currently no effective or ethical treatment options. Symptomatic treatment for the condition only provides temporary improvement, as seen in Sasha’s case.
• Uday, an adult male of uncertain age from South Africa developed acute neuromuscular symptoms on the 23 rd of April just over a week after he was released from his quarantine camp into a much larger acclimatisation camp. During the morning monitoring, it was noted that he was stumbling around in an uncoordinated manner and was unable to lift his head. He was sedated by the KNP veterinary team and treated symptomatically. Blood and other samples were collected to send to the lab to get a better understanding of his condition. He unfortunately died later that same afternoon. Additional wildlife veterinarians and veterinary pathologists were brought in to perform a thorough post-mortem. The initial examination revealed that he had most likely died of terminal cardio-pulmonary failure. Failure of the heart and lungs is common in the terminal stages of many conditions and does not provide much information about the underlying cause of the problem. It also does not explain the initial neuromuscular symptoms. The rest of his organ tissues appeared to be relatively normal except for a localised area of potential haemorrhage in his brain. There were no other signs of injury or infection.  Numerous tissue samples were collected for analysis. Importantly, his relatively normal blood results and normal white blood cell count indicate that he was not suffering from any infectious disease that could pose a risk to any of the other animals. The histopathology and toxicology reports still need to be finalised before any conclusions can be drawn. The other cheetahs have been closely monitored and none of them have shown any similar symptoms. They all appear to be perfectly health, are hunting for themselves and displaying other natural behaviours.

All About Project Cheetah, Complete Information.

Finally, the ambitious Project of the government has been launched with the name 'Project Cheetah' which aims to reintroduce the species of cheetah to its former habitat in the nation.

Table of Contents

• Project Cheetah

Finally, the ambitious Project of the government has been launched with the name ‘Project Cheetah’ which aims to reintroduce the species of cheetah to its former habitat in the nation. The cheetah was declared extinct in India in 1952. Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of Koriya (today’s Chhattisgarh) shot dead the last three recorded Asiatic cheetahs.

Now,  after seven decades, on, September 17 , PM Modi released 8 African cheetahs brought from Namibia at Kuno National Park of India .  

Five female and three male cheetahs flew from Namibia to Jaipur in a special Boeing 747-400 aeroplan e of IAF covering a distance of more than 8,000 kilometres in more than 20 hours. From Jaipur, they were taken to Kuno National Park of Madhya Pradesh.

Kuno National Park is a 748 square km protected area. To keep predators out of the park, which can hold a maximum of 21 cheetahs, a 12-km long fence has been built, where they will be kept and closely monitored for one month. Later, they will be released into a safe area.

What is the Project Cheetah?

• In January 2020, Project Cheetah was approved by the Supreme Court of India as a pilot programme with the motive of reintroducing the species of cheetah to India.
• The main motive of the project is to grow healthy meta-populations in India that allow the cheetah to execute its functional role as a top predator, the government had said earlier this year. The cheetah is a flagship grassland species; which plays a major role in conserving and preserving other grassland species in the predator food chain.
• The idea was conceptualised after the initiative taken in 2009 by the combined efforts of Indian conservationists and the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) , a not-for-profit organisation, headquartered in Namibia, which is working to save and rehabilitate the big cat in the Jungle.
• And after more than 12 years of talks, India and the Republic of Namibia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in July 2020. As per the MoU, Over the next five years, Namibia promised to deliver 50 cheetahs to India and for now, the Namibian government gave a green flag to donate the eight felines to launch the programme.
• At the last moment, the “project cheetah” faced an obstacle when India refused to accept three of the eight cheetahs, claiming that they were captive-bred and might not survive in the wild. However, the tourism ministry of Namibia said that all eight animals were seized while they were young and had experienced hunting.
• Currently, only 7,000 cheetahs are surviving, primarily in the woodlands of Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. This is the first project of its kind as for the first time, wild southern African cheetahs are being relocated to any other part of the world.

FAQs related to Project Cheetah

Q1. How many Cheetahs have been brought from Namibia to India? Ans. 8 African cheetahs brought from Namibia at Kuno National Park of India.

Q2. What is the aim of Project Cheetah? Ans. The aim of the project is to grow healthy meta-populations in India that allow the cheetah to execute its functional role as a top predator.

Q3. Indian Air Force used which aircraft to translocate cheetahs from Namibia to India? Ans. Cheetahs flew from Namibia to Jaipur in a special Boeing 747-400 aeroplan e of IAF

Q1. How many Cheetahs have been brought from Namibia to India?

Ans. 8 African cheetahs brought from Namibia at Kuno National Park of India.

Q2. What is the aim of Project Cheetah?

Ans. The aim of the project is to grow healthy meta-populations in India that allow the cheetah to execute its functional role as a top predator.

Q3. Indian Air Force used which aircraft to translocate cheetahs from Namibia to India?

Ans. Cheetahs flew from Namibia to Jaipur in a special Boeing 747-400 aeroplane of IAF

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• Recently, eight cheetahs have landed in Gwalior from Namibia’s capital Windhoek and reintroduced in Kuno National Park . The day also marks PM Modi’s 72nd birthday.  

Timeline/ History of cheetah reintroduction in India

• Cheetah or Acinonyx Jubatus : It is the fastest terrestrial animal on earth. The cheetah is the only large carnivore that got completely wiped out from India , mainly due to over-hunting and habitat loss. 
• Meaning: The word ‘Cheetah’ is of Sanskrit origin meaning ‘variegated’, ‘adorned’ or ‘painted’.
• They are found in classical Greek records of India , from Strabo, about 200 years before the Common Era.
• In the Mughal Period , cheetahs were used very extensively for hunting. Emperor Akbar had 1,000 cheetahs in his menagerie.
• Central India , particularly the Gwalior region, had cheetahs for a very long time. Various states including Gwalior and Jaipur used to hunt cheetahs.
• The country’s last spotted cheetah died in Sal forests of Chhattisgarh’s Koriya district in 1948 and the wild animal was declared extinct in the country in 1952.
• Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh , the ruler of a small princely state in today’s Chhattisgarh shot India’s last 3 surviving cheetahs. 
• The plan was to exchange Asiatic lions for Asiatic cheetahs.
• 2009 : Another attempt to source Iranian Cheetahs was made in 2009 without success. Iran would not permit even cloning of its Cheetahs.
• 2012 : Supreme Court ordered a stay on the reintroduction project.
• 2020: South African experts visited four potential sites: Kuno-Palpur , Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary, Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary and Madhav National Park.

About the recent translocation programme 

• Project Cheetah : The introduction of cheetahs in India is being done under Project Cheetah, which is the world’s first intercontinental large wild carnivore translocation project.
• The Coexistence approach is considered more favourable by social scientists.
• Fencing has proven to be a valuable tool in eliminating cheetahs’ tendency to range over wide distances in South Africa and Malawi, thus allowing for population growth.
• The core conservation area of KNP is largely free of anthropogenic threats.
• Kuno NP will be more challenging, as it is not enclosed / fenced.
• There have been no successful cheetah reintroductions into unfenced systems.
• Anthropogenic threats to cheetah survival include snaring for bush meat and retaliatory killings due to livestock depredation.
• This would place them at the risk of human-related mortality including snaring and retaliatory killings by livestock farmers.
• But these reintroductions were all done in fenced PAs as fencing provides safety from human-animal conflict caused due to cheetahs killing livestock. 

Significance of Cheetah reintroduction

• India as historical Cheetah habitat: The Cheetah habitat in India historically is  from Jammu to Tamil Nadu , very widespread and they were found in  any habitat dry forests, grasslands, scrub forest,  etc.
• Pray base: Experts believe that as long as there is enough food and there is protection they will regenerate on their own. A‘prey base’ that can sustain the population and that has already been prepared at the Kuno-Palpur sanctuary.
• Cheetahs will help in the restoration of open forest and grassland ecosystems in India. 
• The cheetah is a flagship grassland species ; whose conservation also helps in preserving other grassland species in the predator food chain. 
• This will help conserve biodiversity and enhance the ecosystem services like water security, carbon sequestration and soil moisture conservation, benefiting society at large .
• It will also lead to enhanced livelihood opportunities for the local community through eco-development and ecotourism activities .

Challenges:

• There may be intra-guild competition between the big cats in Kuno. 
• More aggressive predators such as tigers and leopards will compete with the cheetahs. 
• They may be driven to the outskirts of the park, where they could come into conflict with humans.
• The protected area of Kuno-Palpur National Park is largely dry, deciduous forest. 
• The initial criticism was if the African cheetahs who are more used to the savannahs of that continent adapt well to Kuno.
• Indian cheetahs were largely dependent on blackbucks and chinkaras, sometimes on chital and rarely on nilgai. 
• Few of these species are believed to have disappeared from Kuno.
• Some 24 villages have been relocated and rehabilitated from Kuno for this project. 
• But now, Cheetah reintroduction may delay this project.

Way forward/ Government’s efforts

• India should have a functional compensation scheme in place to deal with this potential threat. 
• Radio collars have been installed in all the cheetahs and will be monitored through satellite. There will also be a dedicated monitoring team behind each cheetah who will keep monitoring location for 24 hours.
• To increase prey base inside the 500-hectare enclosure, the Kuno National Park has brought in 238 chitals or spotted deer (Axis axis) from Pench and Narsinghgarh Wildlife Sanctuaries of the state and are planning to bring in around 300 more deer.
• Over time, says the action plan by the Centre, cheetah and leopard populations will be able to coexist.  

Source: DTE

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L ast September, eight radio-collared cheetahs made the 5,000-mile-long journey from Namibia to India, eventually landing at Kuno National Park in the central state of Madhya Pradesh. Their arrival marked the final phase of a 13-year-long effort called Project Cheetah, which aims to reintroduce the big cat species to India’s grasslands 70 years after they were hunted into oblivion. 

The project’s launch also coincided with the 72nd birthday of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who celebrated by personally releasing the first cat from its crate into the park. “Decades ago, the age-old link of biodiversity that was broken and became extinct, today we have a chance to restore it, ” Modi said in his address. “Today, the cheetah has returned to the soil of India.”

Project Cheetah entered its second year yesterday (Sept. 17), but the fate of the high-profile conservation project hangs in the balance after nine out of 20 cheetahs, including three cubs, have died of various causes since March.

Authorities have recaptured the remaining cats and kept them in enclosures for close monitoring and supervision, where they will continue to remain until a government-appointed committee of wildlife experts approves their re-release into the wild.

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These setbacks have raised concerns from an international community of conservationists involved in the project, who say inexperience and mismanagement—as well as the government’s politicization and sidelining of expert opinions—may have contributed to the cheetah deaths.

Why does India want to reintroduce cheetahs?

Asiatic cheetahs once roamed the grasslands of the Indian subcontinent for many centuries alongside lions, tigers, and leopards until they became a hunting target of princely rulers and British colonizers. In 1952, they were officially declared extinct in India.

Since then, India has held many discussions on how to reintroduce the animal back to its ecosystem and considered offers from the governments of Iran and Kenya. In 2009, the Indian government officially proposed the introduction of African cheetahs, but the Supreme Court halted these efforts in 2012 after some wildlife experts said importing African animals violated international conservation standards. The top court reversed its decision in early 2020, allowing the import of cheetahs—but in small numbers and on an experimental basis.

Following the relocation of the first six cats from Namibia, a second group of cheetahs arrived from South Africa in February. About a dozen more cats are planned to be brought from African countries every year for the next five years in an attempt to establish a cheetah population of around 40. The Indian government plans to spend 40 crore rupees, or nearly $11 million, on the project.

“India’s motivation stems from the desire to restore a vital element of its ecological heritage,” SP Yadav, who leads Project Cheetah on behalf of the Indian Environment Ministry's forestry department, tells TIME. “By bringing them back, India aims to showcase its commitment to conservation and biodiversity restoration.” 

Ensuring Project Cheetah’s success is also “a matter of national pride,” adds Yadav, nodding to the Modi government’s aspirations to grow India’s wealth and scientific knowledge. During the cheetahs’ release last September, Modi told spectators that “along with these cheetahs, the nature-loving consciousness of India has also awakened with full force.”

In a statement, Laurie Marker, the executive director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is also advising the project in India, said global conservationists saw the project as central to “ensuring cheetah survival transcends national boundaries.”

Why did the cheetahs start dying?

The first death of India’s new cheetahs occurred when Sasha, a female, died from a pre-existing medical condition in March, followed by the sudden, unexplained death of Uday, a male, in April. Then, in May, another female cat named Daksha died from a violent mating incident. Two separate cubs found to be weak, underweight, and dehydrated also perished.

Several more cheetahs died in July and August from various factors including humidity, maggot infestations, and infections caused by the radio collars, alarming the experts, Yadav says. “Even in South Africa and Namibia, such problems had not been reported,” he says. In July, authorities began recapturing the rest of the free-ranging cheetahs to prevent more deaths.

Many cheetah experts working in African conservation projects, who have also advised the program in India, have nevertheless expressed concerns. They say that while it is typical for half of the original population to die in the first year of relocation due to poaching or environmental difficulties, better monitoring and timely veterinary intervention could have prevented the deaths that have occurred so far.

Adrian Tordiffe, a South African cheetah expert serving on the Indian government’s advisory committee for Project Cheetah, says he was frustrated by the cheetahs’ deaths. “From a veterinary point of view, we are always trained towards saving every single individual life,” he says.

Tordiffe also describes the project as “very difficult to navigate.” Earlier in the year, he says he and other foreign experts were excluded from committee meetings and experienced delays in communications with Indian officials, especially when the cheetahs were injured.

“I’m sure they’ve got very good experience with tigers in India, but this is a new and unique species [for modern India],” he adds. “We can often pick up little things and give advice on how to manage the situation as see a lot of clinical cases.” Tordiffe speculates the lack of communication may have been due to a hesitation from the Indian side to publicly acknowledge cheetah deaths. “The whole culture is very different; they tend to feel you have to keep things quiet,” he says.

It’s especially concerning since India is one of the few places with dedicated veterinary support and monitoring of individual cheetahs, Tordiffe adds. “We don't have that luxury in many of these kinds of projects, so it’s truly remarkable,” he says.

In July, Tordiffe and other Namibian and South African experts involved in the project raised these concerns in a letter written to India’s Supreme Court, where they alleged their roles as advisers had been reduced to “mere window-dressing.” (Two experts have since withdrawn their names from the letter out of concern that it could impede future exports of the animal from Africa.) Another letter by CCF’s Marker asked for “better communication [and a willingness to] trust experts,” according to the Indian Express .

The government responded by saying the deaths did not call for alarm despite the project having had its challenges. The top court instructed the Indian government to consider a better home for the cheetahs: "You should look at other possibilities ... Why are you making this a prestige issue?” the court asked in July. The cheetahs have yet to be relocated elsewhere.

What happens next? 

The upheaval meant Kuno missed its target date for opening the park up to tourists in February, but conservationists hope the project will rebound as it enters its second year. 

Yadav contends the project is already seeing some promise, pointing to the 50% survival rate of the cheetahs and the birth of cubs in Kuno. “The success of this project will open up possibilities for rewilding initiatives worldwide,” he adds. In Kuno, workers point to Aasha, a Namibian female, who has so far survived and happily explored her new surroundings, as an example of “positive hope for the future of cheetahs in India.” In a recent newsletter, the national park stated that “Aasha’s journey taught us that cheetahs can survive Indian conditions without changing their behavior much.”

Tordiffe, the South African cheetah expert, says its important the project succeed, as it can serve as a model for future wildlife management. “We don't live in a world where we can allow normal evolution to take place at its own pace because we are changing the world too fast for many of these animals to be able to adapt,” he warns. “And so we must take responsibility to have this kind of active wildlife management.”

Nevertheless, Tordiffe says that Project Cheetah has taught him one new thing in the field of animal conservation. “You can be the best biologist or veterinarian, but in a high-profile project like this, you’ve also got to be savvy in terms of the political context,” he says.

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Write to Astha Rajvanshi at [email protected]

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Inside the controversial plan to reintroduce cheetahs to India

Imported African cheetahs will be the first to roam India in decades, but critics of the project say the big cats have little chance of survival without ongoing human intervention.

Even as a student, Yadvendradev Jhala dreamed of the day when cheetahs would once again roam India. The big cats formerly shared the landscape with tigers, leopards, lions and wolves, but they disappeared 70 years ago as human development and hunting ramped up.

“This is the only large animal that we have lost in independent India,” says Jhala, dean of the Wildlife Institute of India. “I’ve always been interested in reintroducing cheetahs to India.”

If all goes according to plan, Jhala could soon see that vision become a reality. Eight cheetahs are scheduled to arrive in India from Namibia later this month, in celebration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday on September 17, and 12 more are due from South Africa around October 10. After undergoing a month-long   quarantine, they will be released in Kuno National Park , a 289-square-mile protected area about 200 miles south of Delhi.

Proponents of the project say the cheetahs’ presence will strengthen both conservation efforts and the local economy.  

“The cheetah is a magnificent animal, it’s a big magnet for ecotourism,” Jhala says. “If you bring in cheetah, the government will put funds into rehabilitating and rewilding these systems, and all the biodiversity will thrive.”

The project will also potentially be a boon for the species overall: Only around 7,100 cheetahs remain in the wild today, and Jhala and others say that adding India back as a range state will help grow the big cat’s numbers. Asiatic cheetahs, the subspecies that formerly occurred in India, now only survives in a tiny population in Iran.

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Some experts contend, however, that the reintroduction plan is premature. Any cheetahs released into the park will quickly stray outside its boundaries, they warn, where the big cats will likely be killed by people or dogs or succumb to starvation.

“I’m not against the project, I’m against this very tunnel vision thing of just bringing cheetahs and dumping them in the middle of India where there are 360 people per square kilometer,” says Ullas Karanth , emeritus director for the nonprofit Center for Wildlife Studies and a specialist in large carnivores. “It’s putting the cart before the horse.”

“There’s not any chance for free-ranging cheetah populations now,” adds Arjun Gopalaswamy , an independent conservation scientist who has conducted research on big cats in Africa and India. Cheetahs in India “perished for a reason,” he says, and that reason—human pressure—has only gotten worse in the 70 years since the species disappeared. “So the first question is, Why is this attempt even being made?”

Jhala counters, however, that this type of outlook is too focused on the “nitty gritty” details rather than the larger good that cheetahs can bring to India, such as boosting investment and protection in ecosystems that support the big cats, and building up local economies.

“It’s a restoration and rewilding project for the planet,” he says. “I don’t see anything that can be a contradiction to such a noble goal.”

Decades-long dream

Like many predators, cheetahs today occupy only a fraction of their historic range. A little over a century ago, they prowled the grasslands and open forests of much of Africa, Arabia, and India. Cheetahs are more docile than most other big cat species, and in India, the royalty used them for hunting—the feline equivalent of falcons or dogs.

By the mid-19th century, India’s cheetah numbers had severely dwindled—to the point that they were having to be imported from Africa for hunting. Some had been captured or shot for sport, but mostly, it seems that the growing human population was responsible for the species’ decline. People retaliated against the big cats for killing goats and sheep, and dogs attacked cheetah cubs and adults. In 1947, the Maharaja of Korawi shot three cheetahs—likely the last definitive sighting of the species in India. (See why cheetahs are at risk—and how people are protecting them.)

By 1952, Indian politicians and scientists were calling for a “bold experimentation to preserve the cheetah,” according to records from the country’s first wildlife board meeting. Indian officials came close to reintroducing cheetahs in the 1970s by negotiating to exchange some of India’s lions for Iran’s cheetahs, but the deal fell apart in the lead-up to the Iranian Revolution.

In 2009, the idea was revived, and eventually greenlit, when India organized a closed meeting of officials and scientists to discuss bringing cheetahs back. Proponents said that reintroducing the species would restore a now-vacant ecological niche. While leopards, tigers, and lions ambush their prey—attacking the closest animal to them, regardless of its fitness level—cheetahs specialize in picking off the weakest animals. That type of predation, which keeps prey populations healthy by weeding out the sickest individuals, has been largely missing in India since cheetahs disappeared, proponents say. (Read more about how cheetahs hunt.)

Even in 2009, though, not everyone was in favor of moving forward. “Some of us pointed out that it’s not ecologically viable,” recalls Karanth, who was not invited to the meeting, he says, because he criticized the plan.  

“But there are some conservationists who have really been pushing this, and they convinced the previous environment minister that he’ll become very famous if he brings the cheetah back.”  

“It’s very difficult to understand the motivation for this project from a scientific point of view,” adds Gopalaswamy. “But from an attention-seeking point of view, I can see a lot of sense.”

Jhala counters that the project is being driven by more than just public relations, but “whatever the motives may be, it doesn’t matter as long as conservation is happening on the ground.”

Tasked with identifying sites for a possible reintroduction, Jhala and colleagues honed in on Kuno, and by 2012, negotiations were underway with Namibia to import a first batch of cheetahs. But then, the Indian Supreme Court intervened, passing a judgment stating that Kuno should be prioritized for reintroducing Asiatic lions rather than cheetahs, and that any cheetahs eventually brought to India should come from Iran, not Africa.

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The judgement proved impossible to carry out. Only around 600 Asiatic lions remain in India , all of which live in just one state, Gujarat. Experts agree that having all the lions in one place leaves the species vulnerable to extinction and that it would be prudent to expand their range to other parts of the country.  

But “in typical Indian style,” Karanth says, politicians in Gujarat were not willing to give up their monopoly on the species and share lions with another state. The Gujarat Forest Department did not respond to a request for comment.  

Lions were out for Kuno, and reintroducing Iranian cheetahs to the park was also a dead end. The 30 or so wild Asiatic cheetahs in Iran will likely be extinct soon, not least because Iran’s six leading cheetah scientists were jailed in 2016 on charges of spying.

For the reintroduction plan, then, it would be African cheetahs or nothing. In 2020, the National Tiger Conservation Authority , the government group tasked with managing India’s tigers, petitioned the Supreme Court for permission to move forward with the estimated $28 million plan to bring African cheetahs to India. The court acquiesced. After decades of effort, India, it seemed, would finally see cheetahs again.

Cheetah "control tower"

When Jhala reached out to Vincent van der Merwe , a South African cheetah conservationist, about the possibility of sourcing cheetahs from South Africa, van der Merwe enthusiastically agreed to collaborate.  

“It was a prestigious project,” he says. “Cheetahs used to be in India, and they should be back in India.”

At the time, van der Merwe worked for the   Endangered Wildlife Trust , a South African nonprofit, where he ran the Cheetah Metapopulation Project. The project came into being as a way to maintain cheetahs in a human-dominated landscape that otherwise would not permit their survival. In large, unfenced protected areas like Tanzania’s Serengeti and Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve, cheetahs maintain home ranges of up to 386 square miles and occur at low densities of just one or two animals per 40 square miles .  

In most places in South Africa, however, development stands in the way of the species’ natural dispersal, and heavily managed, fenced reserves paid for by tourism—which van der Merwe calls “the fortress approach” to conservation —has been the “secret to success,” he says. “If it’s not fenced, they don’t reproduce and they move out.”

Van der Merwe’s job entails moving cheetahs from one place to another to replace individuals that die and to ensure healthy gene flow. “I’m like a control tower,” he says. From 2011 to 2022, he helped grow the Cheetah Metapopulation Project from 217 cheetahs on 40 reserves to 504 cheetahs on 69 reserves.

For van der Merwe, who is also a National Geographic Explorer , expanding the project to India was a chance to build on those successes. It was also a solution to the never-ending challenge of what to do with excess cheetahs born on reserves with limited carrying capacities, or with ones that wander onto farms and need to be relocated. “People are phoning me all the time, ‘There’s too many cheetahs here,’” he says. “I’m under constant pressure to move animals.”  

As van der Merwe quickly learned, however, even in Africa, “the conservation community is very divided by this reintroduction.”

Van der Merwe had originally hoped to source a few cheetahs for the India project from Liwonde National Park in Malawi, where he and his colleagues reintroduced the species in 2017. “Malawi is quite lush, with a resemblance to India,” he says.

But he quickly ran into opposition from other conservationists, and, in July, he decided to resign from the Endangered Wildlife Trust.  

Van der Merwe then founded his own nonprofit, the Metapopulation Initiative, to continue both his cheetah work and collaboration with Jhala and colleagues. “I wanted the freedom to run my own project and expand as was required,” he says.  

“Worth the risk”

Van der Merwe was particular about the 12 South African cheetahs he selected to be the founding population for India, choosing animals that were born in the wild, grew up alongside other predators, and were accustomed to humans monitoring them by foot or vehicle. Those cheetahs, along with, most likely, eight from Namibia (the numbers are still being confirmed), were originally scheduled to make the journey to India in August. But the date has been postponed several times.

The relocation is now tentatively scheduled for mid-September for the Namibian cheetahs and October for the South African ones (the South African government still needs to sign off on the project). If all goes according to plan, the 20 cheetahs will stay in a fenced area at Kuno for a month or so before being released into the park. “When we open the gates, every cheetah is on his own,” van der Merwe says.

Once released, though, the big cats will almost certainly walk out of the unfenced park, “and then they’ll have a hell of a problem,” Karanth says. “The cheetahs will get trashed and killed very quickly because there’s nothing outside of Kuno—it’s villages, dogs, and farms.”

S.P. Yadav , the additional director general of India’s Tiger Authority, points out that all of the cheetahs will be equipped with tracking collars and monitored 24-7. “So if they walk away, we’ll bring them back,” he says.

Communities surrounding the park are on board with the reintroduction plan, he adds, because the cheetahs are expected to bring an influx of tourist dollars. They “are expecting a turnaround in the economy,” Yadav says.

However, van der Merwe did not dispute Karanth’s prediction. “We’ll lose a tremendous amount of animals, we know this,” he says.

Given this likelihood, he continues, the focus in India should be on the long-term plan to regularly supply cheetahs from Africa until the species gets a foothold—a goal that will require a minimum of 500 to a thousand individuals . If a cheetah population is successfully established in India, then given the density of humans there, the country’s cheetahs will have to be heavily managed, with animals exchanged between reserves and even continents.

Gopalaswamy, however, criticizes this approach as being unsustainable. “This sort of stop-gap arrangement involves this very expensive and complex process of continuously translocating individual animals, essentially trying to mimic nature,” he says. “In my view, it’s quite distant from what cheetah conservation is all about.”

But to van der Merwe, it’s simply the reality of wildlife conservation today . In most places, he points out, “long gone are the wide-open spaces for wildlife to roam freely,” and intensive management is the only solution for maintaining large predators there. “I believe that these first reintroductions into India have the potential to open doors for cheetah-conservation efforts, to create considerably more safe space for the species,” he says. “Of course, there is a very real risk of failure, but I feel it’s worth the risk.”

As for Jhala, he’s heard no opposition to the project from Indian politicians or the public—only from fellow conservationists. “The worst enemies for conservation are conservationists,” he says. “Once it’s done and people see the success of it, I think all of them will come around.”

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Photo: Cheetah Conservation Fund

The Science of Cheetah Conservation

First published in sanctuary asia , vol. 40 no. 11, november 2020.

Founded in 1990, the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), Namibia, is dedicated to the conservation of cheetahs and their ecosystems, working with government bodies and other stakeholders in the continent. CCF has been conducting research on cheetah translocations in the early 1990’s and have translocated over 100 cheetahs, both within Namibia and to help support populations in South Africa. CCF is providing support to India’s Cheetah project committee in its ambitious proposition to translocate cheetahs to India’s grasslands once again . Abinaya Kalyanasundaram speaks to Founder and Director, Dr. Laurie Marker, about cheetah conservation in Africa, translocation protocols and the potential of the project to save the species and India’s grasslands in one go. Excerpts follow:

How well does the cheetah currently fare in the global level?

According to the study “ Disappearing spots… ” published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), there are fewer than 7,100 cheetahs remaining in the world. CCF believes the number should be a little higher, so we say less than 7500. This accounts for young cheetahs and several micro-populations in Somalia, Somaliland, Djibouti and Eritrea that were not included in the PNAS study.

The cheetah is listed as vulnerable by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species with two subspecies, the Asiatic cheetah Acinonyx jubatus venaticus and the Northwest African cheetah Acinonyx jubatus hecki listed as critically endangered. The cheetah’s historical distribution in African covered a substantial portion of the continent, but as a result of range contraction in the last century, the cheetah is found in only 9 per cent of its historic range, of which 77 per cent is outside of protected areas. Acinonyx jubatus jubatus is the southern African cheetah, and its range includes a five-country polygon of Namibia, Botswana, South African, Zimbabwe and Angola. This is the largest population of wild cheetahs in the world. Smaller, fragmented populations of Acinonyx jubatus soemerengii , the East African cheetah, or Somali cheetah, are found in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa countries, although their numbers have never been officially recorded.

The species is nearly extinct in its entire Asian range, with the exception of a remnant population in Iran, about 50 individuals or less.

Considering the proposal to relocate cheetahs to India, what aspects make a habitat suitable enough for cheetahs to survive? How much space would these animals need?

Our research shows that cheetahs require huge territories for home range, of about 1500 sq.km.

It is imperative that the threats responsible for the initial removal of cheetahs at potential release sites be addressed, or plans are in place to mitigate the threat. A habitat suitability study should be conducted to ensure there is sufficient vegetation to support viable prey populations to sustain the introduced cheetahs for the long term. The reintroduced population needs to be protected from anthropogenic threats, and the potential impact of unnaturally high inter and intraspecific competition needs to be managed.

Due to the cheetah’s large home ranges and tendency to occur in low densities, release sites need to be part of a larger suitable landscape or else metapopulation management becomes necessary.

Subtle characteristics such as adequate prey, prey species diversity, inter-specific large predator relations and human wildlife conflict will affect the reintroductions but the chances for success are in favor of the cheetah. The Kuno sanctuary offers promising suitable habitat such as the open woodlands and grasslands, which cheetahs favor for hunting. If the location is carefully selected – this is the job of the team in India – choose areas where chances for conflict is less high. In my report, I mention that surveys, conducted by Dr. M.K. Ranjitsinh and Jhala (2010) from the Wildlife Trust of India and the Wildlife Institute of India, identified a total of 10 potential sites for cheetah reintroductions and provided recommendations pertaining to each site. After conducting surveys in the areas, the WII short-listed three sites, Shargarh area in Rajastan, Kuno Palpur and Nauradehi Sanctuaries in Madhya Pradesh as possible habitats. In the areas I saw there was plenty of prey – prey density is a consideration – but this would need to be assessed again currently.

What could such an ambitious cheetah relocation achieve?

Cheetahs help maintain the grassland ecosystems which are critically endangered in India, and India is home to the largest free-roaming populations of livestock. The

National Forest Commission of Government of India also strongly recommends further protection of grasslands and associated flagship species. Among large carnivores, cheetah are likely to present the lowest level of conflict with human interests, as they are not a threat to human life and are most unlikely to predate large livestock.

Bringing back a top predator restores historic evolutionary balance, which leads to: a) Better management and restoration of cheetah habitat (grasslands, scrublands and open forest ecosystems), b) Conservation of cheetah’s prey and sympatric endangered species c) A top-down effect of a large predator that enhances and maintains the diversity in lower trophic levels of the ecosystems.

In the effort to reintroduce the cheetah in India, we aim to achieve both the biological objectives i.e. re-establish the ecosystem function role of the cheetah in representative areas of its former range, and contribute to the global effort towards the conservation of the endangered cheetah as a species as well as preserve its genetic diversity.

Would you know how and when the African and Asiatic cheetah diversified into separate subspecies?

The time of divergence between A. j. venaticus and A.j. jubatus was estimated at 4,700 – 67,400 years ago. The extent of the separation of A.j. venaticus from the African subspecies was not clear-cut. mtDNA data placed the split between A.j. jubatus and A. j. venaticus slightly more recently than that of A.j. jubatus and A.j. soemerengii , while microsatellite data suggested that the divergence with A.j. soemmerengii was the more recent event. It is important to keep in mind that divergence values between A.j. venaticus and the other subspecies could have been stochastically increased due to a postulated recent bottleneck in A.j. venaticus.

O’Brien et al (2017) estimates a time of divergence between A.j. venaticus and A.j. jubatus of approximately 6,500 year ago.

Would African cheetahs be able to adapt to Indian climatic conditions?

Cheetahs were at one time found throughout India, so they will be able to survive the climate conditions again now upon introduction. In the parts of Africa where cheetah are found, the temperatures can vary between very, very hot in the day to cold at night, and cheetahs can adapt to the seasonal shifts. They also contend with extreme rain and wet seasons in Africa, much like in India. Cheetahs do well in open savannahs and grassland environments, which they need for hunting. Cheetahs also benefit from high grass areas or bush areas that enable them to remain undetected while stalking prey. The habitat of the site in India will be an important consideration.

What are the factors to be considered for translocation success and individual survival?

Evaluating the success of cheetah translocations is complicated. The outcomes of many incidences are unpublished and those that are published potentially suffer from positive publication bias. Successes are more likely to be published than failures.

Success is generally based on reproductive success, but programs often use different definitions of this term. A meta-analysis of documented cheetah translocations determined that at least 727 cheetahs were translocated into 64 sites in southern Africa between1965 and 2010. Six of the 64 release sites were considered successful based on natural recruitment (births) exceeding adult mortality three years after introductions began. In many of the other projects, the number of cheetahs released was small and long-term monitoring was not conducted. If such long-term monitoring had been implanted and documented, additional sites might have been deemed successful.

The principal factor associated with reproductive success in a carnivore translocation program is the suitability of the release site for the target species, and in the case of free-range releases, the suitability of the surrounding area. Important characteristics of the release site include habitat and prey availability, the potential for intra and interspecific competition, and the animal’s ability to leave the site.

Can you provide examples of past cheetah translocations CCF has carried out?

In Namibia CCF began research on translocations in the early 1990’s and have translocated over 100 cheetahs in Namibia both within Namibia and to help support populations in South Africa. Our rehabilitation research began in 2005 and since then, we have rehabilitated over 60 orphan cheetahs in Namibia. Our research has provided a way forward for reintroductions.

The first translocated cheetahs in Namibia were released into fenced and unfenced nationally protected areas in the 1960s and 1970s in South Africa, to reintroduce or reinforce existing populations. Legislation passed in South African in the 1960s returned the right to utilize wildlife to landowners, paving the way for the development of private game reserves. In 1991, landowners in South Africa began stocking private reserves with cheetahs for tourism purposes, and cheetah translocations intensified during the mid 1990’s to mid-2000’s.

A trial conflict mitigation method, a compensation-relocation program was carried out in South African between 2000 and 2006. Cheetahs perceived to be predating on livestock were captured by landowners and relocated to private reserves and national parks. But vacant territories encourage immigration of new individuals, which may increase human- wildlife conflict. Removing predators is counterproductive to encouraging landowners to coexist with large carnivores, and the impact of repeated removals on wild populations was the primary reason for suspending this program in South Africa.

What are the safety protocols in place for cheetah translocations?

I drafted an action plan that outlines the logistical steps of bringing an initial small group of male and female cheetahs from southern Africa or other such place with cheetahs that could begin the reintroductions. The animals would first be placed in a one to two hectare, fenced holding area for inspection, where they would be fitted with satellite collars. The collars will enable scientists to track their movements and monitor their health status. After a short stay, they would be released into a larger enclosure, to become familiar with their new environment, where they would remain for two weeks to a month before being released into the sanctuary. Their movements would be monitored by research teams, and if an individual strays too far afield, the animal would be brought back into the sanctuary. The action plan also details instructions on feeding and care, and an assessment of breeding expectations.

Elaborate on the human-cheetah conflict situation in Africa, and how one can plan to avoid the same in India.

Habitat loss along with loss of prey base directly threaten the cheetah’s existence, and they are also drivers of predation and farmer-carnivore conflict. Conservation organizations are often under pressure to translocate cheetahs that are believed to be responsible for livestock depredation, to prevent them from being killed, and as such, translocation is often considered a human method of conflict mitigation. However, the demand for cheetah removal outweighs the availability of suitable introduction sites and resources. A a result, the majority of cheetahs captured due to perceived or actual depredation on livestock have been relocated within existing cheetah populations, without clear reintroduction aims. These translocations, although potentially promoting gene flow and survival of individuals, cannot be viewed as “conservation translocations” as their benefit is largely restricted to individuals rather than populations.

To mitigate conflict between livestock farmers and reintroduced cheetahs in India, sustainable tourism should be promoted so that jobs and business opportunities for the local communities can be created. India can simultaneously boost its local economies and ensure its cheetah introduction is successful by taking this approach.

It is very important that enthusiastic and committed rangers and veterinarians be selected for the project. Through proper training, these persons will become India’s cheetah experts and be central to the success of the project. They will work with farmers to mitigate conflict.

How will CCF be supporting the Indian project committee? What is your opinon on the potential of the project.

Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) has offered to assist a committee of conservation experts appointed by the Supreme Court of India on a pilot programme to introduce the African cheetah to the landscape of India. While the country had long been part of the Asiatic cheetah’s historic range, the critically endangered sub-species, Acinonyx jubatus venaticus, was determined to have gone locally extinct in the early 1950’s.

The project is moving forward with assessments of key areas under consideration. Surveys to establish the prey base will begin once the wet season ends

I visited in 2010 to begin this project with a first assessment. I visited again this year in February, just ahead of the first pandemic lockdowns. I met with officials from the government of India and from local organizations that will be spearheading the project. CCF will play a supporting role, helping the team in India manage this process of reintroduction and looking after the welfare of the cheetahs involved in the reintroduction.

We are excited about the project and the hope it provides for long-term cheetah survival. Introduction will be a long process, but we know that our colleagues in India are up for the challenge. The potential for bringing the cheetah back into the wild, to allow the endangered grasslands and various other endangered species living on these grasslands to prosper, will be very worthwhile.

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Are Cheetahs Endangered and Why Are Populations Declining?

Are cheetahs endangered find out why the cheetah population continues to shrink, and what conservation efforts could save them..

Incredible speeds aside, cheetahs spend most of their days resting. They nap the hottest parts of the day away beneath the shade. They chirp and purr to one another but don’t roar. They’re introverts. However, according to the  International Union for Conservation of Nature  (IUCN), they’re also classified as one of over 40,000 species threatened with extinction, 

Specifically, the cheetah, or  Acinonyx jubatus , is classified as a vulnerable species. Its global population is declining, and a variety of factors, many human-caused factors, are responsible for this downward trend. Decades-old conservation efforts, however, are in place to reverse this decline and protect the speedy, iconic cheetah.

Read more:   How Fast Are Cheetahs, and Other Fascinating Facts About the World’s Quickest Cat

What Is a Vulnerable Species?

When the IUCN classifies a species as vulnerable, it faces a high risk of extinction. According to  Our World in Data , researchers quantify extinction when extensive studies of a species’ habitat reveal “no reasonable doubt” that its last member has died.

The IUCN is a leading database for calculating extinction risk, and it has assessed over 150,000 species so far. It sets specific criteria to evaluate the threat level species face, including these particular metrics:

Population Size

Population size is a significant indicator of a species’ health. For example, if a species’ population is small, or it’s small and has declined or is projected to in the future, it faces a higher extinction risk.

Or, the IUCN may look at where a species lives if its habitat is also diminishing, constricting the range where a species may be found, which also raises red flags.

Probability

Another method is through probability. A species is vulnerable if there’s at least a 10 percent chance that it will go extinct in the wild within the next 100 years – and the metric decreases the higher up we go in the scale. By contrast, a critically endangered species may have over a 50 percent chance of vanishing in the wild within a decade.

Read more:   How Do We Know When a Species Is Extinct?

Are Cheetahs Endangered?

“Vulnerable” is where the cheetah currently sits, though some scientists are calling for its uplisting to “endangered.” Once, cheetahs lived across Africa and into areas of Asia such as the Arabian Peninsula and India. They prowled and slept in a variety of habitats, from savannahs to the Sahara to dry forests.

These days, the cheetah only takes up about  9 percent of its historical range . The disappearance isn’t recent – there were an estimated 40,000 wild cheetahs in 1960, and by the next 15 years, that number  dropped  beneath 20,000.

How Many Cheetahs Are Left in the World?

About 6,500 mature individuals remain in the wild, according to the most recent IUCN assessment in 2021, and they continue to decline.

Southern and Eastern Africa are the strongholds of the current cheetah population. The Asiatic cheetah, however, is almost extinct. Its population in Iran is reportedly at 50 or even lower, and the cheetah had all but disappeared in India, though efforts to reintroduce them into the wild yielded  mixed results .

  Read more:   5 Endangered Animals You Should Meet  

Why Is the Cheetah Population Threatened?

A number of things put cheetahs at risk. Considering it’s the fastest land animal in the world, one cheetah alone needs a considerable amount of territory to roam. Individuals are so spread out, with a population density of about two per 100 square kilometers, making them even more sensitive to environmental changes.

Habitat Loss

Loss of territory — and with it, prey, water, and habitat — from human interventions and  climate change  disrupting species movement is a major blow to wild cheetahs. 

The need for vast habitats is also part of why wildlife reserves or artificial habitats  may not be the best option  for cheetahs’ long-term survival without sufficient preparation or resources. 

Lack of Prey

While protected areas exist within Africa, most of the cheetah population lives outside those areas. This means they conflict with farmers who are cohabitating on the land. Losing access to their preferred wild prey may prod cheetahs to begin going after livestock instead. In retaliation, farmers might trap or shoot cheetahs to protect their livestock.

Interspecies competition with larger predators, like the lion, even within protected areas, poses dangers. Many cheetah cubs don’t make it to adulthood in protected areas, and the  Cheetah Conservation Fund  (CCF) points to a cub mortality rate as high as 90 percent.

Human Conflict

European settlers in the 1970s who viewed cheetahs and other large carnivores as vermin also further reduced the population, according to the  African Wildlife Foundation . But historically, the cheetah was admired as a symbol of status and an ideal hunting companion — a reverence that ironically further pressured cheetah populations. Though laws today prohibit exotic pet ownership, cubs still fall victim to illegal wildlife trafficking, a journey that they rarely survive.

Low Genetic Diversity

Before all of this, the global cheetah population dropped precipitously once, over 10,000 years ago. The resulting population bottleneck limited potential mating partners, leaving a lasting mark on cheetahs’ genetic diversity. Modern cheetahs are more susceptible to infectious diseases, with low genetic variety, as well as other physical issues from inbreeding.

A myriad of other factors continue to threaten the population. High-speed roads increase the likelihood of cars hitting cheetahs, and unregulated tourism risks separating cubs from their mothers or interrupting hunts.

  Read more:   The Cheetah’s Hunting Prowess, Decoded  

How Can We Help the Cheetah Conservation Status?

Political insecurity and the lack of financial resources for investing in conservation are examples of the factors underlying many of the immediate risks cheetahs face. People working to sustain themselves and their farms may not have the incentive or ability to aid conservation either.

Environment Preservation

That’s why the mission to save cheetahs encompasses all corners. Preserving the environment and improving land management is a big part of the solution, but not the whole thing. Conservationists and organizations, local and international, are coming up with plans that are also community or policy-oriented.

Livestock Enclosures and Initiatives

Allowing humans and cheetahs to coexist in a changing world might look like establishing livestock enclosures, using guard dogs to scare away predators, and offering funding to farmers who may have lost livestock.

Long-Term Conservation: The Serengeti Project

The Serengeti Project  through the Cheetah Conservation Initiative is the longest-running project on cheetahs thus far, documenting yearly sightings and population numbers. Zoos worldwide are working on more effective breeding programs to increase the genetic diversity among cheetahs.

Education and Outreach Programs

Education and outreach programs raise public awareness of the cheetah’s vulnerability. Even developing new renewable fuel sources is part of this mission, given oil extraction or mining further exacerbates habitat fragmentation.

The cheetah’s nature can’t be changed: It will continue running, resting, and needing space to live. Just as the cheetah goes many places, so too does the effort to save them.

  Read more:   These 5 Species Were Almost Extinct, But Then Bounced Back

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Guest Essay

I Hope to Repeal an Arcane Law That Could Be Misused to Ban Abortion Nationwide

By Tina Smith

Ms. Smith is a Democratic senator from Minnesota and a former Planned Parenthood executive.

A long discredited, arcane 150-year-old law is back in the news in 2024, and that should terrify anyone who supports reproductive freedom. Last week at the Supreme Court, the Comstock Act of 1873 was referenced on three separate occasions during oral arguments in a case dealing with access to mifepristone, one of two drugs typically used in medication abortions.

Anti-abortion activists like to bring up the Comstock Act because one of its clauses prohibits sending through the mail “every article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine or thing” that could possibly lead to an abortion. Even if the Supreme Court doesn’t take the bait, a newly re-elected President Trump could order his Department of Justice to start interpreting that line to mean that it is illegal to mail mifepristone — a safe, effective, Food and Drug Administration-approved drug — to doctors and pharmacies, as well as to patients directly. The same could go for medical supplies that are used in performing surgical abortions. That could effectively make abortion impossible to access even in places like Minnesota, which has affirmatively protected a woman’s right to choose by passing reproductive freedom laws.

In response, I’m prepared to fight back — including by introducing legislation to take away the Comstock Act as a tool to limit reproductive freedom.

Let me take a step back and explain how ridiculous it is that we’re even talking about this legislative relic today. The Comstock Act hasn’t been broadly enforced since the 1930s. The Biden administration considers it utterly irrelevant. Many legal experts consider it dead letter law. And once you know its back story, it becomes clear why no one has paid much attention to it in nearly a century.

Back in the 1860s, a former Civil War soldier from rural Connecticut named Anthony Comstock moved to New York City for work. He was shocked and appalled by what he found. Advertisements for contraception! Open discussions of sexual health! It all struck Comstock as terribly lewd and anti-Christian.

So he made it his mission to clean up society, creating the loftily named New York Society for the Suppression of Vice and gathering evidence for police raids on places that distributed material he thought was obscene or promoted indecent living. In the early 1870s he took his crusade to Washington, lobbying for federal legislation that would empower the post office to search for and seize anything in the mail that met Comstock’s criteria for being “obscene,” “lewd” or just plain “filthy.” Morality, as determined by Comstock, would be the law of the land, and Comstock himself would be its enforcer, appointed by Congress as a special agent of the post office.

In a fit of Victorian puritanism, Congress passed the Comstock Act into law. But it quickly became apparent that Comstock’s criteria were unworkably vague. In its broad wording, the law not only made it illegal to send pornography through the mail, it also outlawed the sending of medical textbooks for their depictions of the human body, personal love letters that hinted at physical as well as romantic relationships, and even news stories.

The whole thing was very silly and impracticable, and that’s why the Comstock Act was relegated to the dustbin of history.

But conservative activists recently revived it from obscurity as part of their playbook for a potential second Trump term: The 887-page plan nicknamed Project 2025 being promoted by groups like the Heritage Foundation explicitly calls for a newly elected second-term President Trump to use this zombie law to severely ratchet back abortion access in America without congressional action.

Legislation to repeal Comstock could take many forms, and we need to do it the right way. That’s why I’ve begun reaching out to my colleagues in the House of Representatives and the Senate to build support and see what legislation to repeal the Comstock Act might look like. Anti-abortion extremists will continue to exploit any avenue they can find to get the national ban they champion, and I want to make sure my bill shuts down every one of those avenues. Once the Supreme Court has had its say (and many legal analysts speculate that the mifepristone case heard last week should be thrown out on procedural grounds, and may well be), I’ll be ready to have mine.

Here’s the bottom line: We can’t let anyone — not the Supreme Court, not Donald Trump and certainly not a random busybody from the 19th century — take away Americans’ right to access medication abortion. We must protect the ability of doctors, pharmacies and patients to receive in the mail the supplies they need to exercise their right to reproductive care.

As the only former Planned Parenthood executive serving in the Senate, I feel I have a special responsibility to protect not just abortion rights but also abortion access.

Very few Republicans will admit to wanting to see a total, no-exceptions ban on abortion in all 50 states, but the Comstock Act could allow them to achieve that in effect, if not in so many words.

Americans deserve better. The Constitution demands better. And common sense dictates that we stop this outrageous backdoor ploy to eliminate abortion access in its tracks.

Tina Smith is a Democratic senator from Minnesota and a former Planned Parenthood executive.

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