The Cheetah Action Plan (CAP) represents India’s ambitious effort to introduce African cheetahs into its ecosystems, with a focus on both conserving the species and restoring the health of savanna habitats. However, the project has faced several challenges since its inception, including extended captivity of the cheetahs and fatalities, raising questions about its long-term prospects.
What is Project Cheetah?
The CAP states that the translocation of a large carnivore, African cheetahs in this case, is a strategy to conserve threatened species and restore ecosystem functions. It also states that India plans to assist the Government of Iran, and the international conservation community with conserving the Asiatic cheetah and increasing its distribution range to include protected landscapes in India.
The CAP also says cheetahs will be a flagship species for the degraded dry-open forest/savanna ecosystems in India and increase the value of restoring and conserving them, as well as improve the fortunes of local communities through eco-tourism. It has been estimated that the released population should reach the carrying capacity of Kuno National Park in about 15 years and that of the wider Kuno landscape in 30-40 years. According to the CAP, the introduction programme requires long-term (at least 25 years) financial, technical, and administrative commitments from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, and the Wildlife Institute of India.
Why are the African cheetahs in captivity?
Per the CAP, radio-collared male coalitions were to be released first from their holding enclosures (bomas) after a period of one to two months. The radio-collared females were to be released one to four weeks after the males, depending on how comfortable the males were in their new environment. India has missed these timelines. The quarantine period in Kuno for all the cheetahs was longer than specified. Once the cheetahs were released into the bomas, they endured a prolonged period of confinement. In fact, the 12 surviving adult cheetahs of the 20 brought from Africa have spent almost all of the last 12 months in captivity.
Such long-term captivity can only be interpreted as a misguided attempt by those managing the cheetahs to play it safe, possibly in the belief that the mortality of the cats can be mitigated in captivity and that they will also be easier to breed.
The problem? Captive cats quickly become unfit to be released to range free in the wild, which is Project Cheetah’s objective. A Namibian policy categorically restricts the captivity period for wild large carnivores to three months. If the period exceeds this duration, the carnivore should either be euthanised or be held permanently in captivity.
As per this policy, the 12 adult cheetahs and the 12 cubs currently in Kuno are unfit to be released into the wild.
Why did so many cheetahs die after moving?
Deaths and births are part and parcel of the lives of all species. That said, in such international projects, utmost care should be taken to assess and choose individual animals before they are imported. Once the cats are in India, we are responsible for deploying the best available knowledge and management practices to ensure they thrive, not just survive.
There have been failures on both these fronts. One female cheetah imported from Namibia had a pre-existing and chronic renal ailment resulting in her death in captivity in March 2023. A male from South Africa died in captivity in April 2023 due to suspected hypokalaemia and the resulting acute heart failure. A female from South Africa died in captivity in May 2023 as she was mauled by a male coalition in an enclosure while the managers were trying to get her to mate. All three cats died before they were released at all.
In late May 2023, three of the four cubs born to Jwala were found dead due to heat stroke. Between July 11 and August 2, 2023, two males from South Africa (one free-ranging and the other in captivity) and one female from Namibia (free-ranging) died. The official reason was that these cats contracted dermatitis, followed by myiasis and septicaemia. The root cause was allegedly the growth of a winter coat during the Indian summer and monsoons. This is physiologically impossible since a shorter day length is required for the winter coat to grow.
In January 2024, a male from Namibia died in captivity due to septicaemia. In August 2024, another male from Namibia — the only free-ranging African cheetah in Kuno — died apparently due to drowning. A few cheetah researchers with decades of experience said none had heard of a single instance of a free-ranging cheetah drowning.
Two of the cubs born in a litter of six died in June and August 2024. One cub’s spine was broken.
Why are the cheetahs located in Kuno?
The CAP states that 10 sites were surveyed in five central Indian States to determine their suitability for introducing African cheetahs. Of these, Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh was found to be the most suitable for introducing the cheetahs because of its habitat and adequate prey base.
But even in Kuno, the cheetahs have largely been held captive. About 80 sq. km has been fenced off in Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary and cheetahs were initially supposed to be released there by December 2023 or January 2024. Now the plan seems to be to introduce the cats in late 2024 or early 2025.
A captive breeding facility for the African cheetahs is being built in the Banni grasslands of Kachchh, Gujarat. Some cheetahs are likely to be housed here. Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh has also been mentioned as a potential site for introducing African cheetahs.
Who is responsible for the cheetahs?
An expert committee appointed by the NTCA and chaired by Rajesh Gopal has the overall responsibility for guiding the project. The NTCA and the MoEFCC are the institutions responsible for all high-level decision-making, including negotiating with the African countries to procure the cheetahs.
The Wildlife Institute of India has been providing technical inputs and the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department has been responsible for the field implementation.
Will Project Cheetah have measurable outcomes?
The CAP outlines both short-term and long-term success criteria for introducing cheetahs in India. In the short term, the goals include a 50% survival rate for the first year, cheetahs establishing home ranges, successful reproduction in the wild, and generating revenue for local communities through eco-tourism. These goals are currently not being met due to prolonged captivity, which contradicts the plan’s original prescriptions. Long-term success is measured by cheetahs becoming a stable part of the ecosystem with natural survival rates, establishing a viable metapopulation, improving habitat quality and prey diversity, and benefiting local economies through sustainable conservation efforts.
Does Project Cheetah have a sunset clause?
In some sense, the long-term criteria for success like the establishment of a viable metapopulation in India should be viewed as the sunset clause. Such projects will need almost constant management attention.
The timelines stretch across a minimum of 15 years but more realistically 30 to 40 years, as per the CAP.
But the big question still remains: does India have sufficient habitat (4,000 to 8,000 sq. km) of the required quality to establish a viable population of free-ranging cheetahs in the wild
?Ravi Chellam is a wildlife biologist and conservation scientist based in Bengaluru. He is CEO of Metastring Foundation and Coordinator of Biodiversity Collaborative. The views expressed by him are independent and personal
Published – September 17, 2024 08:30 am IST