New Delhi: Twelve cheetahs from South Africa will arrive at Gwalior airport on an Indian Air Force C-17 Globe Master plane Saturday, officials in the environment ministry said Thursday, five months after eight big cats from Namibia were first introduced in the country.
These 12 cheetahs from South Africa will join the others at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, marking the second phase of the world’s first translocation of its kind. The new batch of cheetahs are due to reach Gwalior airport on the morning of 18 February, following which they will be flown into Kuno via helicopter.
These cheetahs are being brought to India on an experimental basis, to “revive” their population after they were declared extinct in the country in the 1950s. The project also seeks to conserve the global population of cheetahs —roughly at 7000— by diversifying their habitats and establishing metapopulations outside the African continent.
However, the plan has attracted much controversy, with experts raising concerns about the survivability of African cheetahs in India, as well as the costs involved in the project.
In a press conference Thursday, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav and member secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, SP Yadav, dismissed these concerns, stating that the climatic conditions were suitable and prey base sufficient enough to ensure the cheetahs establish a “viable population” in the country.
The eight cheetahs from Namibia were shifted out of quarantine and into larger fenced enclosures over two months ago. According to the ‘Action for Cheetah Introduction Plan’ prepared by the Wildlife Institute of India, the cheetahs will eventually be released from the enclosures and into the wild in a phased manner, “after an appropriate period (1-2 months).”
When asked, officials did not comment on the timeline of the Namibian cheetahs’ release to the wild, but said most were showing “increasing signs of normal behavior” within the enclosures, including hunting. The exception is one female cheetah that is recovering from illness.
The conservation trial will also open doors for tourism, an “important tool” in wildlife conservation, SP Yadav said.
“But our first priority is making sure the cheetahs are healthy and adapting well to their new environment,” he added.
Stuck in quarantine since July 2022
The South African cheetahs will inhabit ten new and “improved” quarantine spaces that have been built within the National Park. The new batch includes seven males and five females from the Phinda and Rooiberg Reserves in Johannesburg.
Once in India, they will remain in quarantine for at least 30 days, in line with international norms, before being shifted to larger enclosures.
ThePrint earlier found that these cheetahs were stuck in quarantine in South Africa since July last year, for over six months, due to delays in signing the final agreement for the translocation of cheetahs to India. Experts have said this could affect the cheetahs’ fitness levels.
“The government will follow international quarantine protocols under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora”, Yadav said, when asked about how the government might address these concerns/ revert to original.
Over the long term, the government has proposed coming up with an Eco-Sensitive Zone Master Plan and Cheetah Conservation Foundation, the Union environment minister said.
Also read: 70 years after they went extinct, cheetahs return to India in world’s largest conservation trial