After the reintroduction of Cheetahs in the mid-1950, the species became extinct in India. Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh brought back India’s lost species when all eight of them were ferried (5 Female and 3 Male) were ferried from Namibia during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday on 17th September. Â
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Recent Imported Cheetah Surge Considering India’s Historic Tryst with Cheetah.Â
A sudden imported cheetah surge has taken place.This now follows 12 more cheetah species from South Africa which are to be flown from Johannesburg aboard the Indian Air Force Boeing C-17 Globe Master, as confirmed by Union Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav.Â
Asian Cheetah was a common sighting and thus roamed across the middle east during the 20th Century; their extent was from the Arabian Peninsula to the Southern Indian district of Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu.
From Firoz Shah Tughlaq to the Mughal Emperor Akbar, royalty used cheetahs during medieval times to attack Gazelle and Blackbuck, ironically endangered within the Indian Subcontinent.
There was also the prominence of a white cheetah during Raja Vir Singh Deo’s time in Orcha Madhya Pradesh. Jean de Thevenot, in his chronicle, gives mention of Cheetah during Emperor Aurangzeb’s period too.Â
In this picture, Asiatic cheetah cubs in Dharwad photo taken in 1898 (Source: Journal of Bombay Natural History Society)As time strolled during the British Raj, the popular sport of trophy hunting animals did not have cheetahs to show for that; besides a few exceptions, their population became as few as 230 by 1799.
During the 20th Century, the last female Cheetah was sighted in the Koriya district, now a part of Chhattisgarh, in 1951
Imported Cheetah Surge in the Country and the need for restoring the lost Animal Heritage.
The thought of restoring cheetahs was an attempt by the NDA government to retrieve India’s ancient biodiversity heritage, as the name “cheetah “was a vernacular Sanskrit word. Previous Governments tried methods to import it from Kenyan Government in the 70s, but as there wasn’t a concrete plan, those attempts failed.
But the issue goes more than the political realms. Cheetah worldwide is getting extinct, not just in India.
And there is an effort to restore Global Biodiversity by Conserving these animals.
The current population world over at 6,517, according to the IUCN, which makes this species Vulnerable to Extinction and nevertheless an endangered species.
The Map shows the geographical range of the Cheetah considering both Asiatic and African Species; in most parts of the erstwhile inhabitation, the cheetah population is mainly considered to be close to extinct, baring a few in the Okavango Delta in Southern African Regions of Botswana, Namibia and the Kalahari region in Northern South Africa, Also shown in the Map substantial population numbers in East Africa and Persia but the Arabic Peninsula and the Indian sub-continent is primarily devoid of this animal presence, (Map Source ESRI and IUCN).
Cheetahs have been known to occur only at 9 % of their past distribution range. In Asia, they are only known to survive in Iran. Genetically the Asiatic Cheetahs have close origins with their African counterparts and are basically in the continent as migratory species from Africa, according to some biologists, as they still venture around the Caspian Sea regions.
Most Cheetah Primarily lives in the Grassland and hunt healthy herbivorous animal populations. That are primarily slow species. As Cheetah numbers dwindle, it shall lead to the domino effect, also known as a trophic cascade, that may allow Herbivorous animals to thrive, further depleting the grassland vegetation and increasing the risk of desertification. Such a situation was witnessed in Africa.
In India, Grasslands have declined by grassland area declined from 18 to 12.3 Mha—a decline of 31%—between 2005 and 2015 (Pandey 2019), and 45-61 per cent of the forests will fall under climatic hotspots in the country by 2030.
Indeed, importing and restoring Cheetah shall, in the longer run, preserve the Grasslands and the Forests Ecosystem India currently possesses.
Further Importing and the Larger Attempts in Restoration
Further talks are expected to take place with the Islamic Republic of Iran for importing Asiatic Cheetahs native to the continent for centuries. But the more significant attempts now are for its relocation and further restoration.
Kuno Palpur and Nauradelhi Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh and Shahgarh landscape in Jaisalmer are selected for possible restoration sites according to the Wildlife Institute of India and the current habitation in Kano National Reserve.
