IFS officer’s Twitter thread on what led to the extinction of cheetahs goes viral

https://twitter.com/icarus_ak/status/1570831861202710530

While sharing archival footage that shows how cheetahs were domesticated in India, Parveen Kaswan, an Indian Forest Services officer, wrote, “Historical record suggests cheetah were in least conflict with humans. Rather they were domesticated and used by hunting parties widely. Even some used to call them ‘hunting leopards’. 2/n”

In further tweets, he explained how cheetahs, once widespread in India, were pushed to extinction by recreational hunting.

Paswan also shared an 1879 painting that shows cheetahs and lynxes being chained like pets on charpais (cots) in the middle of human settlements in Alwar, Rajasthan. Commenting on this thread, a Twitter user wrote, “Most of Indian wildlife was destroyed by British officers for their hunting pleasure, and Indian rulers abetted them too for their own show-off. Arrival of guns with Britishers expedited extinction of many Indian wild animals like cheetahs once found in abundance. 😑😔”.

Another person wrote, “Thank you for sharing Sir. We are paying the price now for the atrocities conducted in the past by upper strata of society on human and animal lives. Hope we still learn to live and respect all living being.”

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