In modern times, human impacts are primarily responsible for species extinctions and biodiversity loss. Societies founded on ethics and endowed with the finances and scientific acumen often reintroduce locally extinct species to reap the benefits of ecosystem services that emanate from them for future generations.
The cheetah, the only large carnivore made extinct in independent India by human actions, was reintroduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2022, reinforcing the government’s commitment to conserving our natural heritage. Prehistoric cave paintings, the mention of the animals in ancient texts, and the Sanskrit origin of the name cheetah dispel the view that the animal is exotic to India. Recent genetic analysis of the extinct Indian cheetah shows the animal’s origin in Persia. The cheetah, the lion, the striped hyena, honey badger, caracal, and gazelles are some examples of Ethiopian fauna that colonised India through Persia in ancient times.
The cheetah served as an evolutionary force and was responsible for the fast speed of the blackbuck, its major prey. Unlike tigers, leopards and lions — ambush predators — the cheetah hunts by chasing its prey and thereby removes the sick, old, as well as young from the population, ensuring the survival of the fittest and keeping the prey population healthy. A top carnivore at the apex of the food chain can sustain its population when lower trophic levels are functioning optimally. This is the philosophy of Project Tiger, which uses the tiger as a flagship to garner resources for conserving intact ecosystems. Several ecosystems in India do not have tigers; cheetahs could serve as a flagship for conservation there.
Unfortunately, Indian conservationists have failed to provide the correct narrative to the government in using indigenous species as flagships and investing in their conservation. The last population of the Great Indian Bustard, a grassland flagship, is dwindling as they die from collisions with power lines. The threatened species of the savanna and deciduous forests — wolves, caracal, blackbuck, bustards, four-horned antelopes, honey badger and chinkara — would benefit from the investments in bringing back the cheetah.
However, successful reintroductions require long-term commitments in several areas. Re-wilding ecosystems requires a reduction in biotic pressures by incentivised voluntary relocation of communities, as has been done in tiger reserves, control of bushmeat consumption and restoration of prey. Resources required for these need to be committed to a minimum of three to five sites for the long term (25-30 years). India does not have Africa’s vast wilderness with low human densities. However, within the historic range of the cheetah, we have approximately one lakh square km under protected areas (PAs). Individual PAs by themselves are, however, not big enough to sustain a viable cheetah population in the long term. Therefore, conservation practitioners need to be innovative and manage cheetahs from these sites as a metapopulation — artificially moving animals between them to mimic natural dispersal for demographic and genetic viability.
Once cheetahs build up a population, they will disperse naturally to colonise larger human-dominated landscapes and may potentially exchange individuals between some of the conservation sites naturally. Each of the sites would require an investment of Rs 250-500 crore for restoration as functional systems.
Kuno was restored for the reintroduction of lions. About 20 villages were relocated to create 748 sq km of human-free national park. This PA was ready for the cheetahs. Most of this amount (Rs 250-500 crore) will be given to local communities as incentives to relocate. It is a win-win situation for the local people and biodiversity conservation, and an opportunity for governments to earn peoples’ goodwill. Given an opportunity, most forest communities prefer to join mainstream society that gives them access to markets, roads, electricity, hospitals, jobs, and education. Community-based ecotourism, sharing of gate receipts with buffer zone villages, and an increase in real estate with the arrival of cheetahs are some direct economic benefits to local people if schemes are implemented prudently and equitably.
There are no records of wild cheetahs attacking humans — cheetahs may kill sheep, goats, and cattle calves when they venture out of PAs. A scheme to compensate for livestock predation that is transparent needs to be implemented. If people benefit economically from having cheetahs in their neighbourhood — like people in Saurashtra benefit from lions — they are likely to be more tolerant towards the animals.
Critics had expressed several reservations: Cheetahs will have difficulty in killing deer, they will be trapped by poachers, killed by leopards and village dogs and come into conflict with local people. They have been proved wrong on all counts. The cheetahs have been observed to kill mostly wild prey even when outside the National Park. Only one calf was killed — and compensation was prompt. There has been no conflict with communities.
Cheetah mortality was anticipated, but because of snaring, attacks by leopards and feral dog packs, starvation, disease, and road kills. No cheetah has died of any of these causes — that is heartening. Some deaths were management related within enclosed protected bomas (cubs dying due to malnourishment and a female being killed by males). These are expensive learning experiences that the project could have done without. Some cheetahs died due to septicemia caused by skin lesions that got infected by maggots. Southern Africa, from where the cheetahs have been brought, currently has a cold dry winter — in response the animals developed a winter coat. Their physiological cycle is still tuned to the photoperiod of Southern latitudes. In Kuno, they experienced a hot and humid climate — their winter fur accumulated moisture and the radio collars aggravated the condition making their skin itchy and delicate. Scratching resulted in wounds that were infected by maggots.
Unfortunately, the inexperience of the field staff did not allow detection of the infection in time which could have led to an easy cure. The deaths are a setback for the project, but not a cause for its failure. Given time, the Southern African cheetahs are likely to adapt to the Indian photoperiod and change their biorhythms to time their coat with Indian winters. Reintroduced cheetahs would need to be cared for till the time they adapt to Indian conditions; those born here should be just fine. The MoUs between India-Namibia and India-South Africa allow us to import more cheetahs – provided we convince these governments that India is making its best efforts and will continue to do so to maintain the welfare of individual cheetahs.
The release of the first inter-continentally translocated cheetahs by the Prime Minister gave the project the required prestige. Metapopulation management along with economic benefits to communities is the only way to reestablish Cheetahs in India. The reintroduction project is much required for the ecological security of India.
The writer is former Dean Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun. He was lead scientist of Cheetah Project from 2012 to February 2023
