Cheetah Reintroduction in India

Cheetah Reintroduction in India

Subject :Environment

Context : Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park to host eight cheetahs arriving from Namibia. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release three cheetahs — two male siblings and a female — into the enclosure Saturday to launch the re-introduction of the species in India.

Concept :

Reintroduction Action Plan

• ‘Reintroduction’ of a species means releasing it in an area where it is capable of surviving.
• Under the plan, 50 Cheetahs will be introduced in the different National Parks in the country in a span of 5 years.
• Initially, translocating around 8-12 cheetahs from South Africa, Namibia and Botswana will be done.
• This is the first time in the world that a large carnivore will be relocated from one continent to another.
• The Ministry is coordinating with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) as well as the Wildlife Institute of India(WII), which has been spearheading the project on behalf of the Indian government.

How Cheetahs got extinct in India?

• The Cheetah is believed to have disappeared from the Indian landscape when the Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of Koriya is believed to have hunted and shot the last three recorded Asiatic cheetahs in India in 1947.
• In 1952, the Indian Government declared the Cheetah extinct in the country.
• The only large carnivore till date to have gone extinct in the country, due to a combination of hunting and loss of habitat.

Cheetah vs Leopards

About Cheetah:

• The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran.
• It is the fastest land animal, estimated to be capable of running at 80 to 128 km/h.
• There are four recorded subspecies of Cheetahs.
• The cheetah is threatened by several factors such as habitat loss, conflict with humans, poaching and high susceptibility to diseases.