Chasing Cheetah

Poor management and lack of transparency raise doubts

The deaths of five adult cheetahs out of the 20 brought from South Africa and Namibia, and of three cubs born in Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh, have raised concern about the Rs. 90 crore project launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The statistics and lack of transparency do not add to the credibility of this first intercontinental cheetah introduction programme. Last week, the explanation of radio collars causing fatal bacterial infections was added to the mix, and then retracted by the environment ministry as “speculation and hearsay without scientific evidence”. But radio collars were removed all the same from six cheetahs over the weekend.

To be sure, the experience of cheetah relocations within Africa suggests a 50 per cent mortality rate of introduced cheetahs, and the action plan for this project has factored in a similar statistic. This apart, the survival rate of cheetah cubs even in the Serengeti plains, which is a protected ecosystem, is 5-10 per cent. In this context, the deaths of three cubs, the first to be born in India in more than 70 years since the Indian cheetah went extinct, could not be described as deviations from the norm. But more robust explanations may be required for four of the five adult cheetahs that died in captivity, raising questions about the efficacy of project management. One female died from a pre-existing kidney condition, which raises questions as to why India accepted an ailing animal. A second male was found to be disoriented but no explanation was offered for this condition. A third female died when two males were introduced in her enclosure in an effort to mate her, though, it was discovered, she was not ready to mate and was killed by the males. This tragedy could have been avoided if the management team had sufficient knowledge of cheetah physiognomy or if she had been in the wild, where she could have escaped her predators. The fourth was found to be underweight and, again, had pre-existing health conditions. It is unclear why a cheetah in captivity should be underweight.

Some wildlife biologists have pointed to the risk associated with the elongated plan of captivity. International standards require one month of quarantine and four to eight weeks in an acclimatisation enclosure (also known as hunting bomas) before being released into the wild. Given that the first lot from Namibia arrived on September 17, 2022, they should have been released into the wild by mid-December. Instead, they were released in mid-March (the second lot of cheetahs, arriving in February, had a faster release). This apart, before being released into the wild, the cheetahs were kept in hunting bomas, which covered just 6 square km. Questions have also been raised about the level of interference with cheetahs in the wild, with injured females or males fighting to establish territory being rescued rather than following the established practice of allowing nature to take its course, which is essential for honing the survival instincts of the big cats in the wild in the long run. When the lions of Gir are dying for want of new habitat, which is being occupied by imported cheetahs, the Project Cheetah should have been evaluated with more rigour.