STATUS OF PROJECT CHEETAH

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Context:

Project Cheetah has encountered significant setbacks, including prolonged captivity and cheetah fatalities.

What is Project Cheetah?

• Project Cheetah is the reintroduction of Cheetah to India’s forest ecosystem to conserve threatened species and restore ecosystem functions.
• As part of the project, 50 cheetahs will be introduced to various National parks including Kuno national Park, Madhya Pradesh.
• The first batch of eight Cheetahs arrived in 2022 from Namibia and the second batch of 12 cheetahs arrived in 2023 from South Africa.
• Under this project, India plans to assist the Government of Iran, and the international conservation community with conserving the Asiatic cheetah and increasing its distribution range to include protected landscapes in India.

What are India's objectives with this project?  

• The goal of the cheetah introduction project in India is to establish a viable cheetah metapopulation in the country that allows the cheetah to perform its functional role as a top predator and allows the cheetah to expand within its historic range, thus contributing to global conservation efforts. 
• India aims to establish breeding cheetah populationsin safe habitats across its historic range and manage them as a metapopulation. 
• Secondly, the nation's goals employ the cheetah as a flagship and umbrella species to raise funds for restoring open forest and savanna systems, boosting biodiversity and ecosystem services. 
• The government also wishes to ensure opportunities for eco-development and eco-tourism to enhance local community livelihoods. 

Extinction of cheetahs in India

• In India, the last cheetahs were recorded in 1947 when three were shot in the Sal (Shorea robusta) forests of Koriya District, Chhattisgarh state.
• The main causes of cheetah extinction in India were large-scale capture of animals from the wild for coursing, bounty, and sport hunting, substantial habitat modification, and a concomitant fall in prey base.
• Cheetahs were declared extinct in 1952.
• Not just in India, Cheetahs went missing in 14 other countries, mostly middle -eastern like Iraq, Jordan, Afghanistan, African nations, and also from Pakistan.

Success criteria of this project

The project outlines short-term and long-term success criteria for introducing cheetahs in India.

Short term

• The goals include a 50% survival rate for the first year.
• Cheetahs establishing home ranges.
• Successful reproduction in the wild.
• Generating revenue for local communities through eco-tourism.

Long-term

• Long-term success is measured by cheetahs becoming a stable part of the ecosystem with natural survival rates.
• Establishing a viable metapopulation.
• Improving habitat quality and prey diversity.
• Benefiting local economies through sustainable conservation efforts.

What is the current status of Cheetahs location?

• 10 sites were surveyed in five central Indian States to determine their suitability for introducing African cheetahs.
• Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh was found to be the most suitable for introducing the cheetahs because of its habitat and adequate prey base. But even in Kuno, the cheetahs have largely been held captive.
• About 80 sq. km has been fenced off in Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary and cheetahs were initially supposed to be released there by early 2024, now delayed to late 2024 or early 2025.
• A captive breeding facility for the African cheetahs is being built in the Banni grasslands of Kachchh, Gujarat.
• Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh has also been mentioned as a potential site for introducing African cheetahs.

Who is responsible for the Project Cheetahs?

• Overall Responsibility: An expert committee appointed by the NTCA and chaired by Rajesh Gopal has the overall responsibility for guiding the project.
• Decision making and Negotiation: The NTCA and the MoEFCC are the institutions responsible for all high-level decision-making, including negotiating with the African countries to procure the cheetahs.
• Technical Input: The Wildlife Institute of India has been providing technical inputs.
• Field implementation: The Madhya Pradesh Forest Department has been responsible for the field implementation.

Now, what challenges are associated with the project?

Carrying capacity:

It has been estimated that the released population should reach the carrying capacity of Kuno National Park in about 15 years and that of the wider Kuno landscape in 30-40 years.

Long term commitments:

The introduction programme requires long-term (at least 25 years) financial, technical, and administrative commitments from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, and the Wildlife Institute of India.

Long term captivity:

• The quarantine period in Kuno for all the cheetahs was longer than specified.
• The 12 surviving adult cheetahs of the 20 brought from Africa have spent almost all of the last 12 months in captivity while a Namibian policy categorically restricts the captivity period for wild large carnivores to three months.
• Captive cats quickly become unfit to be released to range free in the wild.
• If the period exceeds this duration, the carnivore should either be euthanised or be held permanently in captivity, which is not an objective of Project Cheetah.
• As per this policy, the 12 adult cheetahs and the 12 cubs currently in Kuno are unfit to be released into the wild.
• Such long-term captivity attempt are made possibly in the belief that the mortality of the cats can be mitigated in captivity and that they will also be easier to breed.

Mortality:

Several cheetahs died due to pre-existing and chronic renal ailment, hypokalaemia, heart failure, heat stroke, septicaemia.

Mismanagement:

A female cheetah was killed by a male coalition in an enclosure due to mismanagement.

Missing short term success criteria

• In the short term, the goals include a 50% survival rate for the first year, cheetahs establishing home ranges, successful reproduction in the wild, and generating revenue for local communities through eco-tourism.
• These goals are currently not being met due to prolonged captivity.

Challenges to long term success criteria:

A big question still remains whether India does have sufficient habitat (4,000 to 8,000 sq. km) of the required quality to establish a viable population of free-ranging cheetahs in the wild.

Must read articles

About Cheetah: https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/cheetah

Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary: https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/gandhi-sagar-wildlife-sanctuary

BANNI GRASSLANDS: https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/banni-grasslands-6

Project Cheetah: https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/one-year-of-project-cheetah

Source

https://www.indiatoday.in/information/story/what-is-project-cheetah-2000890-2022-09-16

https://www.wionews.com/india-news/explained-is-indias-project-cheetah-going-awry-whats-behind-deaths-of-big-cats-617530

https://www.financialexpress.com/life/travel-tourism-projectnbspcheetah-what-happened-to-indian-cheetahs-7-decades-agonbsp-2673266/

https://epaper.thehindu.com/ccidist-ws/th/th_international/issues/99762/OPS/G53DA984D.1+GPSDBC22V.1.html