My thoughts on the cheetah reintroduction

Let sleeping cats lie

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The obituary of the cheetah—that lithe, beautiful cat known for its remarkable burst of speed—was written in 1947. Though its demise was authored by a host of causes, the last damning bullets were fired by the Maharaja of the erstwhile state of Korea in Madhya Pradesh. When motoring through the forest at night he came across, and killed, three males, “in perfect condition”. This was the last record of the animal in India, the cheetah would now only be found in the annals of history.

History, it appears, will be rewritten.

And the cheetah will be brought back to India. The first, instinctive reaction is sheer joy. The idea is heady—The Return of the Cheetah. Back from Neverland. Extinction is not forever. I could picture it in my mind’s eye—the beautiful ash-gold cat bounding in powerful rapidity over golden grasslands…closing in on its prey…

Which is about the moment the dream sours…where are the verdant grasslands where the cheetah will live, hunt, mate, breed—the wilds where we plan to reintroduce the cheetahs?

But before we get back to this issue a quick overview: “In the next few months,” according to the Minister of Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh, “India hopes to be in a position to re-introduce the cheetah in captivity and, sooner rather than later, into the wild as well.”

This is not the first time that India has considered bringing the cheetah back-the idea has been bandied about for years, since around the time we lost the cat. Initially, the plan was to get them from Iran where the last of the Asiatic cheetahs survive. But Iran dashed India’s hopes of importing a breeding pair—with their cheetahs numbering barely 25, they were simply not willing to take the risk of shipping out two of them to what was a highly ambitious—and admittedly iffy venture. They even declined a sample of tissue to use in a cloning experiment that was proposed to be done by the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology. That plan had its share of problems—cloning is far from a perfect science, often involving several trials before there is a successful birth. And we have simply not done even basic scientific research on the cat.

All along the question that has plagued the prodigal’s return is the where? Does India, with its booming population, expanding agriculture and race for development have space for another big cat?

Way back in 1960, pioneer conservationist, member of Indian Board for Wildlife and author M Krishnan had asked, “But where are the suitable areas?” and went on to add that, “I do not think the trouble and expense of getting a few cheetahs for liberation into an Indian sanctuary is justified –such an experiment, without such a established territory can only fail. This sentiment was echoed by H S Panwar and Dr Alan Rodgers when preparing India’s Wildlife Protected Area Network, who wrote that there “are no suitable areas to reintroduce cheetah into a "wild" situation in this (semi-arid) zone or elsewhere in India.” A source in the Ministry of Environment and Forests points out that we simply do not have grasslands bigger than 40 sq km.

However, proponents of the project maintain that there are enough potential grassland and scrub forests—and that the cheetah will adjust to its habitat, and that getting the predatpor back will serve to protect crucial grassland habitat. It may well be remembered here that the other feline occupant of the scrub forest, the critically endangered Asiatic Lion is barely clinging on to some 1,400 sq km of habitat. All our big cat areas are man-animal conflict zones. Lack of habitat, and fragmented habitat pushes tigers, leopards and lions into human inhabited areas—leading to bitter, and fatal conflict. Tiger kills livestock-or man, and is killed in retaliation.

Who says the fate of the cheetah will be any different, when it eventually—and hopefully—roams free?

In Namibia, from where we propose to buy our cheetah, conflict, due to livestock loss, is a major issue—and farmers frequently shoot the offending predator.

There is the question of prey base. Though some areas have a fair population of blackbucks, its preferred diet, these are now mainly in agricultural fields (with their habitats encroached), and crop depredation is already a major issue of contention.

It is prudent to remember too that the conditions that made the cheetah extinct in the country have only accentuated. The pressures on its habitat have increased manifold. During the time of independence, the zero hour for cheetah, India’s population was barely 30 crore, today it is over 1.20 billion. Livestock has increased fourfold to nearly 500 hundred million, since independence. Of course, we won’t capture the ‘hunting leopard’, for royal sport—as done in the past; but there is nothing to stop poaching for the lucrative skin trade.

There are other issues. Should we be importing African cheetahs—a different subspecies (Acinonyx jubatus) than the one that lived, and died, in India—the Asiatic Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus)?

Frankly, our track record is nothing to be proud of. Our national animal, the tiger is in dire straits today, with an all time low population of about 1,100. Sixteen tiger reserves—our most sacrosanct protected areas are in deep trouble, with none or negligible numbers of cats.

How then do we justify a fancy multi-million dollar project to bring another big cat into a fraught, tattered kingdom? Is the very fact that there is big money involved encouraging organisations and the government to jump on the bandwagon? Good, long term planning is essential, andcritical questions of habitat, prey-base, potential conflicts must be considered lest we make a mess, as currently with tigers. When we sit in September, 2009 to study the feasibility of the reintroduction, one hopes that the voice of caution will be heard. Let’s first ensure the protection and survival, of our existing big cats, before we attempt to bring the dead to life. Let’s first ensure that we can give the cheetah a safe home so that it flourishes in the wild, and not a second extinction.