It’s going to be a year since the first African cheetah was brought into Indian forests. In that time, nine have died and there seems to be some doubt about how well the others will acclimatise or even survive. A wildlife expert explains what’s going on
India was once home to Asiatic cheetahs. But then, in 1947, the last of these wild animals was shot by Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo, ruler of a tiny princely state in central India. Since then, there have been sporadic attempts at bringing cheetahs back into India, but nothing came of them till September 2022, when eight out of 20 African cheetahs were introduced into Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park. Over the past 11 months, six of these cheetahs have died – some from infection, others from causes yet to be determined. In addition, 3 of the 4 cubs born in Kuno have died. And it looks like more will die. Why is this happening? Was Project Cheetah flawed and if so, can it be fixed? Are Indian forests suitable for African cheetahs? We ask Arjun Gopalaswamy, wildlife and statistical ecologist and the founder and chief scientist of Carnassials Global. He has been involved in quantitative assessments of cheetahs and other big cat populations in Asia and Africa. Edited excerpts:
Q: What are your thoughts on the death of the ninth cheetah?
A: As far as the project goes, these recent deaths were not expected. I think it was presumed that initially there would be one, two at the most three deaths and then the rest of the deaths will be attributed to situations in the wild, which was something that most critics of the project implementation, including myself, thought were going to be serious issues.
Q: What are your thoughts on the death of the ninth cheetah?
A: As far as the project goes, these recent deaths were not expected. I think it was presumed that initially there would be one, two at the most three deaths and then the rest of the deaths will be attributed to situations in the wild, which was something that most critics of the project implementation, including myself, thought were going to be serious issues.