This cute poster was released by the Madhya Pradesh government, just around the time India and Namibia finally inked a pact for bringing African cheetahs to India. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) facilitates the “development of a mutually beneficial relationship to promote wildlife conservation and sustainable biodiversity utilisation based on the principles of mutual respect, sovereignty, equality and the best interest of both India and Namibia.''
According to the Ministry for Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), the nodal ministry for the cheetah introduction programme, the main thrusts of the pact are biodiversity conservation, sharing and exchange of expertise and capacities aimed at promoting cheetah conservation in two countries, wildlife conservation and sustainable biodiversity utilisation, technological applications, mechanisms of livelihood generation for local communities living in wildlife habitats, and sustainable management of biodiversity. The two will also collaborate in areas of climate change, environmental governance, environmental impact assessments, pollution and waste management and other areas of mutual interest. There will be an exchange of personnel for training and education in wildlife management.
The cheetahs will be donated, they cannot be purchased as that would mean wildlife trade.
The ministry repeatedly says it is “bringing back the cheetah”. But, many wildlife experts differ on the language. The Asiatic cheetah, Acionyx jubatus venaticus, which ranged across India has been extinct from the country, and only a handful of individuals of this species are found in Iran. Once the plan to get cheetahs into their former range in India was approved, it became clear that the animal couldn't be brought from Iran, and only the African sub-species Acionyx jubatus venaticus could be brought in sizeable numbers. Thus, technically, the programme is one of 'introduction' and not `re-introduction'.
Semantics aside, however, the first cheetahs should be arriving anytime now. The aim is to celebrate August 15 with the arrival of these new residents.
Apart from Namibia, India is also finalising a pact to get some cheetahs from South Africa. According to the government, the main goal of the cheetah programme is to `` establish a viable cheetah metapopulation in India that allows the cheetah to perform its functional role as a top predator and provides space for the expansion of the cheetah within its historical range, thereby contributing to its global conservation efforts.'' While the ostensible argument for the cheetah programme is to restore original cheetah habitats and their biodiversity and help stem degradation and biodiversity loss, there is a lot of emotion attached to this high optic project. In a sense, it syncs with the whole outlook of bringing back India's lost glory. Ironically, the last three reported cheetahs in the wild were shot down in 1947. It is one project on which the ruling dispensation sees eye to eye with its arch-political rival, the Congress. Plans for reintroducing cheetahs go back to the 1970s, when under Indira Gandhi, it was first discussed with Iran, which had around 250 individuals. The plans, however, did not take off, and by the time they were revived in 2010, Iran was dealing with its own extinction issues.
India then decided that this time, from Africa.
Surveys for ten sites were conducted between 2010 and 2012. Of the potential sites evaluated for the feasibility of establishing cheetah populations in India based on IUCN guidelines, Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh was considered ready for receiving cheetah with the least management interventions, since a lot of investments had been done in this Protected Area for reintroducing Asiatic lions.
Cheetah presence locations from Southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe) were used along with relevant eco-climatic covariates to model equivalent niche space in India using Maximum Entropy Models. The analysis showed that the climatic niche of the cheetah from Southern Africa exists in India with Kuno National Park having a high probability of cheetah habitat suitability.
The current carrying capacity for Kuno National Park is a maximum of 21 cheetahs, once restored, the larger landscape can hold about 36 cheetahs. Ministry officials say these animals will be introduced over the next few years in small batches. They will be released from captivity to the open in a phased manner.
Done the right way, the programme has good potential for sustaining livelihoods and also generating revenue through tourism. It will also provide a valuable source for research.
