Bhopal: India’s Project Cheetah is being touted as a roaring success. With the big cats now exploring new territory and more cubs being added to the count, it is being advertised as a species revival story that India needed. But all is not well behind the scenes. A Madhya Pradesh forest department document hints at the indiscriminate use of tranquilisers on cheetahs, something that can be potentially dangerous for the big cats in the long run, according to wildlife experts.
A 2024 inspection report by MP’s then-Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) and Chief Wildlife Warden, VN Ambade, highlights that till September 2024 — within just two years of the launch of Project Cheetah — the cheetahs in the Kuno National Park were tranquilised 110 times. ThePrint has accessed a copy of the report.
“During the course of the inspection, I had a discussion with the veterinary team comprising Dr Jitendra Jatav from the Madhav National Park, and another veterinarian from the Wildlife Institute of India,” the inspection report said.
“Dr Jatav informed that he had, to date, successfully tranquilised cheetahs 110 times,” the report added.
The frequent use of chemical immobilisations has also been mentioned in the Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change’s (MoEFCC) ‘Introduction of Cheetah in India’ annual report 2022-23. Analysing the first year of India’s ambitious reintroduction of cheetahs, the report noted that “a total of 34 cheetah immobilizations or chemical captures were conducted for various veterinary and management interventions.”
“Despite the cheetahs’ high susceptibility to the physiological effects of capture, a cautious and well-coordinated capture process ensured that there have been no cases of capture-related morbidity or mortality in Kuno,” the report read.
ThePrint reached out to MoEFCC and the MP forest department, but did not receive an official response.
An official from the Kuno National Park, who spoke to ThePrint on the condition of anonymity, said that all necessary protocols are followed during cheetah tranquilisations. The official said that a dedicated veterinary team monitors the process, and the health of the animal is carefully examined before and after the process.
“We are still in the first phase of Project Cheetah. In this stage, we have had to transport the animals, and move them around a few times, for which you need to rely on small doses of chemical immobilisation,” the official said.
But despite these assurances, the high use of tranquilisations has wildlife experts worried.
Madhya Pradesh-based wildlife activist Ajay Dubey said that this is likely to have long-term health impacts on the animals.
“It is a worrisome situation. Imagine being in a state of trans all the time, every time you gain consciousness, you are injected with chemicals again. Anyone with some basic understanding will be able to understand that its long-term impacts would not be good,” Dubey said.
India’s Project Cheetah began in September 2022, with the first batch of eight cheetahs — five females and three males — being flown in from Namibia. In February 2023, another batch of 12 cheetahs were brought to India from South Africa under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between MoEFCC and the government of South Africa.
As of 2026, India has 57 cheetahs, housed primarily in MP’s Kuno National Park and Gujarat’s Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary.
Also read: 3 Kuno’s cheetahs will now be sent to Gujarat. They’re part of the Botswana batch
Recent instances and growing concern
The recent press statements by Kuno authorities providing updates on Project Cheetah have also frequently mentioned instances of tranquilisation.
ThePrint analysed press statements and government reports between 2024 and 2026 and found that “tranquilisation” was mentioned at least a dozen times.
In the most recent case, on 8 May, a cheetah roaming in a forest range in Rajasthan’s Ranthambore Tiger Reserve was tranquilised to be sent back to MP. In February, the cheetahs brought to India from Botswana were tranquilised to be transported and moved between enclosures.
Multiple research studies published over the last decade have highlighted the negative effects of repeated tranquilisations on cheetahs. Studies have mentioned that because cheetahs are inherently delicate animals with relatively low stress thresholds, they face risks such as respiratory problems, hypertension, hyperthermia, and severe physiological issues during tranquilisation. Veterinary teams carrying out the exercise need to ensure that the process is carefully monitored and has rapid reversibility to ensure the animals survive.
MK Ranjitsinh, the ‘Cheetah Man of India’ who paved the way for Project Cheetah and is the brain behind the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, said that the forest department needs to specify the reasons behind the tranquilisations and provide details of which animal was tranquilised how many times.
“You usually tranquilise cheetahs for capture. Of course, you will need to tranquilise them initially for transporting them between countries to ensure they are not stressed, but in many cases, these animals have been tranquilised because they have strayed beyond the park’s territory. The forest department needs to work on expanding the cheetah territory and ensuring that they have a healthy prey base, so that you don’t have to keep bringing them back,” Ranjitsinh said.
Wildlife experts and enthusiasts from countries where the cheetahs have been brought in have also raised their concerns over overdosing on tranquilisation.
“Another cheetah tranquilised. This project from the start is a pure charade; they only think about money and do not care about the well-being of the cheetahs locked up in enclosures, what a shame,” Francoise Hauvel, a wildlife enthusiast, posted on the Facebook group ‘The Cheetah Club’ in August last year.
Other social media groups like ‘Save the Cheetah’ have also been highlighting the issue of excessive tranquilisation of reintroduced cheetahs in India. Multiple petitions on Change.org have also come up over the years to stop the export of cheetahs to India.
“Cheetah reintroduction is not the problem. After they became extinct in India, many of us worked towards their reintroduction. But we got to do it right,” Ranjitsinh said.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)