Project Cheetah: Dream or Debacle?

In our ongoing series, Cataplisms, we examine our multispecies entanglements, critique capitalism, and acknowledge the cataclysms at our doorstep, all through a feline lens. As we delve deeper into these subjects, we are confronted by some heated debates, a natural consequence of having diverse views, stakes and entry points into a subject. We tackle some of these feline matters that divide us in Cat Fight, a project within Cataplisms.

We invite you into a space where the claws are momentarily sheathed, and we look at differing perspectives, side by side. This is not to bring you over, but to demystify the ‘other’ and, possibly, even arrive at a new common direction.

In this first edition of Cat Fight, we look at the viability, ethics and importance of Project Cheetah in India. Does this project save our ecosystems or endanger them? Is it a point of pride or shame for the nation? Join Dr. Y V Jhala, the scientist who helmed Project Cheetah for many years, and Prerna Singh Bindra, wildlife conservationist, author and previously a member of the Standing Committee of India’s National Board for Wildlife, to learn more.

The human-caused sixth mass extinction crisis can only be redressed by humans. Restoring ecosystems through species reintroductions is an important remedial tool. Apex carnivores exert a top down cascading effect on lower trophic levels that increases diversity and brings stability in ecosystems. Viable populations of apex carnivores can only survive within intact ecosystems and therefore restoring top carnivores results in an umbrella effect–where the conservation of an organism at the top of a food chain ensures that the entire food web remains intact–for biodiversity conservation. Humans are fascinated with large carnivores and therefore they serve as flagships to garner resources, public opinion, and political will for biodiversity conservation. Bringing back the cheetah to India serves this purpose.

The costs of reintroducing cheetahs are primarily related to restoring intact ecosystems i.e. incentivized voluntary resettlement of villages from protected areas to reduce human and livestock pressure and allow natural vegetation and wild ungulates to flourish. This restoration will benefit extant endangered wildlife that live in potential cheetah habitats – the ancient Indian wolf, caracal, great Indian bustard, lesser florican, chinkara and blackbuck. Unfortunately, the Indian government has not invested sufficiently in conserving these species and the cheetah is required as a flagship to garner space, funds and other resources required for these conservation efforts.

The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) has been in India before the arrival of humans. The animal is depicted in Neolithic cave paintings dated 10-30 thousand years ago and distinctly described in the Vedas and the Puranas. The modern cheetahs evolved in Southern Africa and dispersed into Asia (Persia and India). Asiatic cheetahs, now only found in Iran and numbering not more than 20 individuals, are highly inbred, and therefore unavailable and unsuitable for any reintroduction program. In such cases the IUCN guidelines for reintroductions recommends using the closest ecological equivalent with a caveat that removing individuals for reintroduction should not adversely affect the source population. The southern African population of cheetahs is not only the ancestral population but also genetically the most diverse and can sustain removal of the 50-70 individuals required for the reintroduction project without detrimental impacts.

Cheetahs require large safe spaces with ample prey for establishing viable populations. Coexistence between cheetahs and local communities is a possibility as Indians share space with lions, tigers, leopards, elephants, and gaur–far more dangerous animals compared to cheetahs. There is no record of a wild cheetah attacking a human. If local communities are allowed to become part of the cheetah ecotourism ventures then an occasional loss of goat or sheep to cheetah predation will be of little relevance compared to the revenue generated by communities and this will help enhance the tolerance levels. The local communities’ real estate value has increased 10-100 fold after cheetahs have been reintroduced in Kuno National Park. The Forest Department pays immediate compensation for any livestock killed by cheetahs. So, there are no costs to local communities associated with cheetah reintroduction, only benefits and therefore there has been no opposition to the reintroduction program from the locals.

Currently within the protected areas of India, 100,000 km² can support cheetahs. However, since India’s protected areas are small, viable cheetah populations can initially only be established within a managed metapopulation framework (i.e. a population of smaller populations that occasionally exchange individuals) with occasional immigrants from southern Africa. Once source populations of cheetahs are established they can disperse into shared lands of another 600,000 km² and establish natural gene flow between the source populations within Protected Areas.

This vision and goal of the cheetah project is to “Establish viable cheetah metapopulation in India that allows the cheetah to perform its functional role as a top predator and provides space for the expansion of the cheetah within its historic range thereby contributing to its global conservation efforts”.

The first step towards this goal entails restoring intact ecosystems. Breeding of cheetahs within fenced enclosures alone, falls short of this noble goal and is a waste of resources if ecosystems are simultaneously not restored to receive free ranging cheetahs. Restoring Kuno National Park for reintroduction of the Asiatic lion took close to 20 years, but with allocation of appropriate resources this process can be accomplished much faster for other cheetah reintroduction sites.

Reintroduction of the cheetah does not preclude the reintroduction of lions or supplementation of tigers in any area. Cheetahs have existed with both these large carnivores in the past. In fact, bringing in the Asiatic lion to Kuno NP will assist the free ranging cheetah reintroduction by reducing the density of leopards–a far more formidable competitor for the cheetah compared to the lion.

The cheetah reintroduction in India has restored our lost heritage, and if implemented as envisioned, it will ensure an intact biota of our dryland-open-forest ecosystems that will continue to provide services to future generations of Indians and our agro-pastoral economy.

Eight cheetahs, flown in from Namibia in 2022, were ceremoniously released in Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 17—his birthday—to kick off the introduction of the big cats to India. Twelve more were transported from South Africa in February 2023. Note, I do not use the term ‘reintroduction’, as India was never home to the African cheetah.

Eighteen months into the project, India has hailed it as a ‘success’, primarily as four litters have been born on Indian soil. Such births would ordinarily indicate success. Wild animals will invest in breeding and raising cubs only if they feel secure; but these births occurred in captivity, not in the wild. Females and males were pushed into unnaturally close proximity to induce them to mate—not always successfully. Female cheetah Daksha succumbed to injuries from violent attacks by her prospective suitors.

Such unseemly haste and poor science has been the project’s hallmark since its initiation. The project aims to have a wild, free ranging cheetah population, which would require at least 50 breeding adults. But there is a problem to achieving this dream: India does not have sufficient quality habitat–atleast 5,000 sq km of Open Natural Ecosystems (ONEs) like grasslands to sustain this population. Cheetahs are long-ranging, low density cats. In prime habitats, the average home range of a cheetah would be approximately 750 sq km; though they are known to roam even over 1,500 sq km. Kuno’s 748 sq km is fringed with thick forests and woody areas, has over 500 heads of feral cattle, and the surrounding landscape is dotted with 169 villages– not the undisturbed savannah best suited to the cheetah. It certainly cannot accommodate the 21 adults envisaged.

As per a paper published in 2023, Kuno can only sustain up to three territories, implying that the park cannot support more than five or six individuals (three males and two females, and perhaps an additional floater). Kuno is not even sufficient for the current population of 13 adults given the frequent forays of the big cats into the larger landscape, including human populated areas. This is such a regular occurrence that it has become a bit of a circus: Cheetah ‘Pawan’ went out, was brought back, released in the park; off he went again, was trapped, released…and so on. Capturing a cheetah is no easy task—and each jaunt involves tracking by an army of foresters; aided, at times, by elephants, dogs and tranquiliser guns.

The interference doesn’t stop here: Radio collars have been removed frequently to get rid of festering maggots; they have been fed goats and such like after their ‘release’ in the wild. Some cheetahs can be approached on foot—and pulled by their tails, as per a video circulated in early May on social media. Rewilding? Definitely not.

Indeed, most cheetahs continue to languish in captivity or are harnessed back when they move beyond Kuno’s borders. This reflects the project’s shifted goal post—from establishing a wild free ranging population in a landscape, to one boxed in fenced or restricted areas, with cheetahs shuffled around in trucks to their designated Protected Areas (PAs) in what is euphemistically being called “assisted dispersal”.

Another stated objective of the introduction was to preserve our neglected grasslands; presumably as the cheetahs settled in and expanded their range, PAs and the larger landscape would be consolidated and protected. What is happening instead is our PAs are being turned into zoos or glorified safaris, and the enclosures sanitised. Resident predators like leopards were flushed out of the bomas in Kuno, and a similar operation is reportedly underway in Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary, marked as the cheetah’s second home. Gandhisagar is half the size of Kuno and a chunk of it—64 sq km—is being fenced off for the expected arrivals.

Equally perplexing is the imperative to plant a species when we have equally charismatic wildlife such as wolves, bustards, caracals and blackbucks, which can serve as ambassadors to imperilled grasslands. Besides, the chronology is all wrong. While predators play an important ecological role to maintain a healthy ecosystem, the preservation of grasslands ought to have been a priority, with legal protection, before getting the animals, instead of expecting the beleaguered 20-odd cheetahs to do the deed. The least the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change could have done is classify grasslands and other ONES as an important biome before greenlighting the project. These habitats are currently classified as wastelands, and hence easily diverted for non-forestry purposes such as infrastructure, industry and mining.

The overwhelming focus on the cheetah is taking much needed attention and resources away from critically endangered species such as the caracal, Great Indian Bustard, Lesser Floricans, the Kashmiri Markhor, and the hangul; as well as other Protected Areas which languish with deficit staff and funds. Mystery surrounds the overall budget for this ambitious, exorbitant project. Rs 91.6 cr have been earmarked for Kuno over a period of five years; besides, unforeseen expenditure like the fencing of parks will escalate costs. Compare this with the measly Rs 60 cr that was allocated for India’s 950 protected areas—besides Project Tiger—for 2022-23, the same financial year that saw the arrival of the cheetah.

Worse, Kuno was to be the second home of the Asiatic Lion, presently confined to its only habitat, the Gir National Park and its surrounds in Gujarat. Here, they’re at risk of any epidemic or disaster wiping out the entire population. Gujarat has always been “reluctant” to share its “pride” of lions and the parachuting of cheetahs has taken care of this political hot potato. It is highly unlikely that the lions will ever be homed in Kuno now; a disaster from the conservation perspective.

What must be considered is also the human cost of the project. While undisturbed habitats are crucial for wildlife, relocation of people living in these areas is a nuanced, complex subject. A study of displaced households from Kuno shows that average per capita income after displacement declined by more than 50% and incidence of poverty (living below the poverty line) was higher (Kabra, 2009). In Kuno villages, mainly of the Sahariya, classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group, are slated to be relocated to create more space for the cheetah (Mahalwal and Kabra, 2023); but this ‘collateral damage’ has got scant attention, is ill-planned and mired in controversy. Kuno’s history of displacement does not inspire confidence.

Though the relocation was carried out sensitively, the impacts were poor due to a complex set of factors-poor land, high dependence of the displaced on forest produce, and had economic, cultural, social impacts. Over 1,600 families from 24 villages shifted out between 1999-2003 to make way for the lion—at least an ecological imperative—were displaced on rocky infertile land, and as per reports continue to languish.

All for the lions that never came.

Project Cheetah is poorly planned, lacks a coherent vision and is not based on robust science. The ethics of transporting wild animals from their familiar, native habitat to an alien, captive environment are questionable. Driven more by political grandstanding than conservation imperatives, the cheetah introduction is a costly mistake that the country and its endangered native wildlife can ill-afford. As the project falters, India stands to lose its credibility on a project that has the world watching.

Note: At the time of publication, on 27th August, 2024, news has come in of the death of the adult cheetah ‘Pawan’–one of the original Namibian cheetahs mentioned in the article. The cause of the death is still being investigated.

References:
1. Wachter, B., Portas, R. and Melzheimer, J. (2023), The introduction of African cheetahs to India was planned without considering their spatial ecology. Conservation Science and Practice, 5: e12943. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.12943.
2. Kabra, A. (2009). Conservation-induced displacement: a comparative study of two Indian protected areas. Conservation and society, 7(4), pp.249-267.
3. Sonam Mahalwal and Asmita Kabra (2023). The slow violence of fortress conservation creates conditions for socially unjust ‘voluntary’ relocation. Biological Conservation, 286, pp.110264–110264. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110264.