Cheetah reintroduction in India

A painting depicting Akbar, the third Mughal emperor, hunting with locally trapped Indian cheetahs, c. 1602.

Until the 20th century, the Asiatic cheetah was quite common and roamed all across the Middle East, from the Arabian Peninsula to Iran, Afghanistan and India. In India, they ranged as far south as the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. The Asiatic cheetah, also known as the "hunting leopard" in India was kept by kings and princes to hunt gazelle and blackbucks. Firuz Shah Tughluq is considered to be the first ruler in medieval times to tame cheetahs for hunting purposes.[9] The Mughal emperor Akbar had around 1000[10] Cheetahs for hunting gazelle and blackbucks.

In 1608, a white cheetah was known to be in possession of Raja Vir Singh Deo in Orchha. Mughal king Jahangir describes its spots to be of blue colour in his book Tuzuk-i Jahangiri. This is said to be the only recorded white cheetah. French traveller Jean de Thévenot mentions in his chronicles during the reign of Aurangzeb that only the provincial governors were allowed to trap and rear Cheetahs in captivity [9]^: 194 Trapping of large numbers of adult Indian cheetahs, who had already learned hunting skills from wild mothers, for assisting in royal hunts is said to be another major cause of the species rapid decline in India as they never bred in captivity with only one record of a litter ever.[11][12]

Fewer number of trophy hunting reports at the end of British Rule in India compared to initial years points out to already dwindling population of Cheetahs.[13] A research found at least 230 cheetahs still existed in wild since 1799.[10]

Hunting of blackbuck with Indian cheetah; Drawn by James Forbes in South Gujarat, India. Oriental Memoirs, 1812.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, the species was already heading for extinction in many areas. There were certain places more affected by this problem than others. The Indian reserves were not very thoughtful when creating habitat loss for these oversized cats. The last physical evidence of the Asiatic cheetah in India was thought to be three, all shot by the Maharajah Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of Surguja State in 1948,[14] in eastern Madhya Pradesh or northern Chhattisgarh,[15] but a female was sighted in Koriya district, in what is now Chhattisgarh, in 1951.[15]

In India in the mid-20th century, prey was abundant, and cheetahs fed on the blackbuck, the chinkara, and sometimes the chital and the nilgai.

...is in low, isolated, rocky hills, near the plains on which live antelopes, its principal prey. It also kills gazelles, nilgai, and, doubtless, occasionally deer and other animals. Instances also occur of sheep and goats being carried off by it, but it rarely molests domestic animals, and has not been known to attack men. Its mode of capturing its prey is to stalk up to within a moderate distance of between one to two hundred yards, taking advantage of inequalities of the ground, bushes, or other cover, and then to make a rush. Its speed for a short distance is remarkable far exceeding that of any other beast of prey, even of a greyhound or kangaroo-hound, for no dog can at first overtake an Indian antelope or a gazelle, either of which is quickly run down by C. jubatus, if the start does not exceed about two hundred yards. General McMaster saw a very fine hunting-leopard catch a black buck that had about that start within four hundred yards. It is probable that for a short distance the hunting-leopard is the swiftest of all mammals.

— Blanford writing on the Asiatic Cheetah in India quoted by Lydekker[16]

With the death of the last remaining population of the Asiatic cheetah in India, the species was declared extinct in India; it is the only animal in recorded history to become extinct from India due to unnatural causes.[17] A consequence of the extinction of the cheetahs and subsequently the Indian royalty that prized them was that their grasslands homes came to be controlled, used and managed by local people. "The grasslands faded and diminished under the hooves of a thousand cattle, they were tilled and ploughed until only a few scattered remnants were preserved in the form of wildlife sanctuaries".

Asiatic cheetah cubs in Dharwar, 1897

In the 1970s, the Department of Environment formally wrote to the Iranian government to request Asiatic cheetahs in use for reintroduction and apparently received a positive response. The talks were stalled after the Shah of Iran was deposed in the Iranian Revolution, and the negotiations never progressed.[19]

In August 2009, Jairam Ramesh, the then-Minister of Environment, reportedly rekindled the talks with Iran for sharing a few of their animals. Iran had always been hesitant to commit to the idea, given the very low numbers present in the country.[20] It is said that Iran wanted an Asiatic lion in exchange for a cheetah, and that India was not willing to export any of its lions.[17] The plan to source cheetahs from Iran was eventually dropped in 2010.[18]

Offers by the Kenyan government to send cheetahs to India were reported as far back as the 1980s. In 2009, the report by Wildlife Institute of India recommended sourcing cheetahs from Africa.[18]

During the early 2000s, Indian scientists from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, proposed a plan to clone Asiatic cheetahs obtained from Iran. The idea of cloning was introduced by the people concerned with their population, which were few. India requested Iran to transport one live pair to India. If not possible, Indian scientists requested Iran to allow them to collect some live cells of the cheetah pair in Iran itself, which can then be made into living cell lines. They planned to use the nucleus from these cells to manually reproduce their own cheetahs, over a significantly long amount of time.[21]

Since the Asiatic cheetah was extirpated from India in 1952, plans to reestablish the cheetah in India have been ongoing.[23][24] For this purpose, a meeting of cheetah experts was organised at Gajner in the Indian state of Rajasthan in September 2009. Laurie Marker of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, Stephen J. O'Brien, and other cheetah experts argued for the introduction of the Southeast African cheetah as the Asiatic cheetah survives only in Iran, its population numbers less than 100 individuals, and the Iranian government's repeated reluctance to supply said cheetahs for Indian efforts.[25][26][27] The meeting also identified Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, and the UAE as countries from where the cheetah could be imported to India. "About 5 to 10 animals annually have to be brought to India over a period of 5 to 10 years," recommended another working group, which was formed for exploring sourcing and translocation of the cheetah.[17][25][28][29][30][31]

The Ministry of Environment & Forests approved the recommendation for a detailed survey of potential reintroduction sites in the Indian states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh, which were shortlisted during the consultative meeting. Four more Indian states; Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra were also considered. The survey would have formed the basis for the roadmap of reintroduction of cheetahs in India, and would have been carried out by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).[32][33][34][35]

A research team led by WII and WTI shortlisted three regions which have the potential to support cheetah populations. The Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary and Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuaries in Madhya Pradesh and the Shahgarh bulge landscape in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan[36] have been found potentially suitable for the reintroduction of the cheetah. The Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh has the potential to hold populations of four of India's big cats; the Bengal tiger, Indian leopard, Asiatic lion, and Asiatic cheetah, all four of which have co-existed in the same habitats historically for many years, before they were wiped out, in part or in whole, due to overhunting and habitat destruction. Since the Shahgarh Landscape is fenced along the Indo-Pakistani border region, the addition of more fencing will ensure adequate protection for the cheetah population. The Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary (1197km2) is part of a much larger savanna landscape (5500 km2) which can host the cheetah as well.[37][38][39]

Southern African cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus)

The Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus) has, for a long time, been classified as a subspecies of the cheetah. However, at a cheetah reintroduction workshop organised in India on 9 September 2009, Stephen J. O'Brien from the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity of National Cancer Institute of the United States said that according to the latest genetic studies, the Asiatic cheetah was, in fact, genetically identical to the African cheetah with which it had separated only 5,000 years ago.[25][26] This was not enough time for a subspecies level differentiation; O'Brien said that in comparison the Asiatic and African lion subspecies were separated some 100,000 years ago, and African and Asian leopard subspecies about 169,000 years ago.[40]

Subsequently, in 2011, a much more detailed five-year genetic study involving gathering of DNA samples from the wild, zoos and museums in eight countries was published in Molecular Ecology on 8 January 2011. This newer study concluded that African and Asiatic cheetahs were genetically distinct and separated 32,000 to 67,000 years ago. Subspecies level differentiation had taken place due to longer separation from the African population.[41][42][43][44]

Genetic studies published in 2020 indicate divergences between Asiatic and African subspecies are more prominent than previously recognized.[45][46]

On 11 March 2023, a breeding pair, named Oban and Aasha, were released together into the wild of Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, India.[62][63] The reintroduced cheetahs are confirmed to have successfully hunted prey in the park.[64] More cheetahs were planned to be released in the coming days.[64] On 22 March a further two cheetahs, named Elton and Freddie were released in the park, bringing the total of cheetahs in the wild at four.[65] The released cheetahs are being tracked by radio collars.[66] A cheetah, named Sasha, later died due to kidney complications.[67] One of the released cheetahs, Siyaya, gave birth to four cubs on March 24.[68][69]

On 2 April, the cheetah named Oban escaped from the boundaries of Kuno National Park, and was spotted in Vijaypur tehsil in a village 20 kilometres away from the park.[70] There were unconfirmed reports of Oban having hunted a cow, sparking fresh concerns about conflict with surrounding villages, but for now, Oban has been tranquilised and returned to the national park.[71]

On 24 April, another cheetah death was reported, with the deceased having been named Uday whom died of heart failure.[72][73][74]

On 9 May, a female cheetah named Daksha died due to a fight with another male cheetah during mating.[75][76]

The reintroduction attempt at Kuno National Park has been criticized by Yadvendradev Vikramsinh Jhala as not providing an adequate amount of space for the felines.[77] A few of the cheetahs wandered out of the park.[77]

On 18 May, the Supreme Court ruled that there is "too much concentration of cheetahs at one place," and ordered the government to "look for an alternative, either in Madhya Pradesh or Rajasthan."[78][79]

On 19 May, two male cheetahs named Agni and Vayu and a female named Gamini were released into the wild at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh. Now a total of six cheetahs live in the wild in Kuno National Park.[80][81]

On 23 May, an unnamed female cheetah cub died in Kuno. The cub that died was one of the four cubs born to a female cheetah named Siyaya, later renamed Jwala.[82][83][84] The prima facie reason for the cub's death is said to be the weakness. As per the Forest department release, "The cub was born weak."[85]

On 25 May, two more cheetah cubs born in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park nearly two months ago died on Thursday due to “sweltering heat and weakness”, as per the official statement.[86][87]

Following the death of three cheetah cubs this week, the Central Govt on May 25 appointed a new 11-member high-level steering committee, comprising national and international experts, to oversee the implementation of Project Cheetah and provide suggestions on the opening of the cheetah habitat for ecotourism.[88]

South African wildlife expert Vincent van der Merwe clarified that recent cheetah deaths in Kuno National Park in India does not mean that the Project Cheetah is failing, as similar mortalities have been reported in African reintroductions. He also declared that they are expecting a 50 percent mortality rate in the first year.[89]

On 28 May, one more cheetah has been released into the wild at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur district, taking the total count to seven, an official said on Monday. Neerva, a female cheetah from South Africa aged 3-4 years, was released into the wild from a larger enclosure at the Kuno on Sunday evening, the national park's Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Prakash Kumar Verma said.[90]

On 14 July, an male named Suraj from Namibia died at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. He is the eighth of the translocated cheetahs to die in the past five months.[91]

On the morning of August 2 2023, a monitoring team from the Madhya Pradesh state forest department discovered the lifeless body of Tiblisi, also known as Dhatri, a female cheetah who was brought to Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary from Namibia. [92] The reason for death was maggot infection. He is the ninth of the translocated cheetah to die.[93]