African Cheetahs Arrive in Style to Their New Home in India

By Siva Parameswaran, World News Editor, The African Gazette

The expectation was very high, and their entry has to be cleared by the highest court in the land.

It was a Royal welcome by all standards and people like Himanshu Rathore are absolutely ecstatic about it. Never in India’s history, has such a reception been accorded to any wildlife arriving in the country.

The Cheetahs from Namibia landed in style to a tumultuous welcome to be released by the Indian Prime Minister into the wild.  After a traditional water shower welcome for the chartered aircraft painted with a Cheetah face, the felines were received by the Indian Airforce authorities to be transported in their helicopters to their new homes in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh (MP).
In what is seen as yet another milestone in Indo-African diplomacy, the cheetahs were translocated from Namibia to the Kuno national park in MP. And, for the first time ever, such an intercontinental translocation of wildlife has happened bringing with it huge challenges for the cheetahs as well as its conservationists. People like Himanshu Rathore – a wildlife enthusiast/tour leader, a Naturalist, and national-level skeet shooter are cautiously optimistic about the arrival of five female and three male cheetahs from the African Savannah to the Indian grasslands.
“I am very excited about the reintroduction of the Cheetahs like most wildlife enthusiasts would be. We have a very efficient team of conservationists and animal relocation experts who have done enough analysis of the Kuno park and have found it suitable for their relocation. I think these 8 cheetahs would settle well and their number will start increasing”.

Cheetah re-introduction: The challenges

The idea of the re-introduction of the Cheetahs though have been widely welcomed, has pragmatic challenges too. Though adaptability to Indian conditions – albeit with similarities with the Namibian one is a wait-and-watch situation, the state, and Federal authorities say a decade of planning has gone into it, and ‘all arrangements are in place for the big cats to settle.
“However, the lack of enough grasslands which is an ideal habitat for the Cheetah, and as suggested by some researchers also that there is a lack of prey base for them are going to be the two biggest challenges for the successful re-location of these cheetahs. Having said that I am still hoping for the best and looking forward to seeing them in the wild soon”.
As part of its wildlife conservation programme and re-location of the Cheetahs which became extinct more than 70 years ago in India, efforts were made to receive 20 African cheetahs in the first phase this year. Whilst the first batch of 8 from Namibia has arrived, Indian officials say that while protocols from their end have been done, Pretoria’s approval is awaited for getting the balance of 12 from South Africa.
Once the dozen more cheetahs arrive from ‘Mandela’s land’, India should look at re-introducing them in more areas like the desert national park in the North Indian state of Rajasthan, which is also home to the renowned Ranthambore National Park Tiger sanctuary-which is showcased as a classic conservation effort covering over 1300 sq km which has contributed to a significant increase in the tiger population in India.
Reasons behind Cheetah population dwindling in India
Cave paintings from the Neolithic period indicate that cheetahs roamed around freely in large numbers in MP. Indian historians also claim that the name cheetah originated from their classic language Sanskrit. While ample proof suggests that cheetahs existed in large numbers covering almost a third of the country, overhunting due to the opulent lifestyle of the Maharajas and subsequently by the British during their colonial regime led to them becoming extinct.
Wildlife experts like Dr. A J T John Singh a distinguished environmentalist and former director of the Wildlife Institute of India told this author earlier, that conservation effort and careful planning apart, another major reason for the extinction of cheetahs in India is the loss of its grassland forest habitat accompanied by its comparatively narrow base of their prey.
Post-independence, the priority of the Indian government was feeding a billion mouths, and as such agriculture was the thrust area for which huge swathes of forest land were converted thereby depriving the big cats of their prey base leading to their dwindling numbers and eventually the extinct of the cheetah. And there was a shift in the policy of parallelly supporting wildlife along with agriculture production led to the establishment of specific natural parks for Tigers, Rhinos, and Lions among others.

The future looks bright…

Indian forest officials say, “the vision behind the intercontinental translocation of the cheetahs is to restore India’s historic evolutionary balance and develop a cheetah metapopulation with a view to conserve the fastest land animal globally”.
Hopes rest on the success of the ‘Project Tiger’ which has not only increased the Tiger population significantly but also doubled up the conservation of water bodies coupled with enhanced livelihood of the people dwelling near the forests. Now, authorities hope they could replicate the same with the cheetahs.
According to Dr. Laurie Marker, Executive Director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund headquartered in Namibia the translocation of the cheetahs to India has also been useful in the conservation efforts in Africa too, particularly in South Africa. Alarmed at the dwindling rate of their population, an intensive conservation programme was implemented in South Africa, which saw considerable growth in their numbers.
Half of the world’s cheetah population thrives in South Africa. As their numbers grow South Africa translocating more of them would become even more possible. More cheetahs mean more prey for them to hunt which has its own cyclic effect and the success of the intercontinental move of the cheetahs would become a trendsetter in relocating big cats globally.
Indian High Commissioner in Namibia Prashant Agarwal in a statement prior to the cats leaving their motherland said “This a global first. This intercontinental translocation is the first of its kind, with no parallels ever. The reintroduction has a special significance as India marks its 75th independence anniversary this year”.
The 8 African cheetahs will be acclimatized and then gradually released into the wild in a month’s time.
And people like Himanshu Rathore have already started cleaning their camera lenses and jungle boots.
“Ideally had we been able to bring the rare Asiatic Cheetahs back it would be icing on the cake, but I am sure these African cheetahs will also thrive in our forests and grasslands.” See you soon in Kuno, he told me as we ended our conversation.

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