'Let's see if the cheetahs are put in the wild'

Civil Society News, New Delhi

TWO years after African cheetahs were airfreighted to India amidst much fanfare, little is known about the government’s favoured wildlife project.

The cheetahs were to be released from their enclosures and roam in the wild. The cheetahs were supposed to enhance wildlife conservation and natural habitats. That goal does not seem near. The only free-ranging cheetah was recently found dead.

To understand what might be going on with the cheetah project, Civil Society spoke to Ravi Chellam, a conservation scientist and a knowledgeable observer of India’s wildlife management.

 

Q: It’s going to be two years since the launch of the cheetah project. They are now all set to release the cheetahs into the wild. Should one assume from this that the project is a huge success? 

Whether the cheetahs will be released in the wild remains to be seen. I’m saying this because the timelines outlined in the government’s Action Plan for Introduction of Cheetah in India or Cheetah Action Plan (CAP) for short, have not been followed. We don’t know what is the basis on which this project is currently being implemented, its day-to-day management, long-term plans, short-term plans…all of it is a big black box at this point of time. 

 

Q: You mean it’s all shrouded in secrecy?

It’s shrouded in confusion and complete lack of clarity on what this project is about. The narrative has been constantly changing. The goal posts have been shifting. To describe it as a mess is paying it a compliment.

Because it’s criminal, what we are doing. We have brought a Vulnerable (IUCN classification) species which is facing a high risk of extinction in the wild, all the way from Africa in the name of conservation. And we’re doing nothing for conservation. On the contrary, we are negatively impacting conservation in India in multiple ways. 

 

Q: How exactly?

First of all, attention has been distracted from much more crucial, urgent, important, nationally recognized priorities. I’m referring to the National Wildlife Action Plan (NWAP). It’s a document which has guided wildlife conservation for decades and the current plan is for the period 2017 to 2031.

Under the NWAP, the conservation of species like the Great Indian Bustard, the gharial, translocation of species like the Asiatic lion have been accorded high priority. Do we hear anything at all about these? Do we know what level of investment is going into the conservation of these species?

No, because today conservation in India is all about tigers and cheetahs. And, as for the cheetah, I have not seen any impact on conservation other than negative. For instance, the Supreme Court ordered the lions to be translocated to Kuno in 2013. We are not even talking about the lions coming to Kuno. We’re talking, instead, about cheetahs not only in Kuno but in Gandhi Sagar and in Nauradehi in Madhya Pradesh, all the way to Banni in Gujarat.

Each time we talk of cheetahs, it is essentially a civil engineering enterprise. We are building enclosures, fences, catching leopards, moving leopards from their native habitat — all in the name of cheetah conservation. They’re catching prey from all over and bringing them to feed the cheetahs in enclosures. This is what I mean by the negative impacts on conservation. 

 

Q: Indian wildlife conservation has a long history. A lot has been done. Has there been a sudden change? Is there now a point of hiatus in which wildlife policy has been subverted and hijacked?

I humbly appreciate what we as a country have done for wildlife conservation. We are, in many ways, the model for the world. Which other country has such a large and high-density human population? And a population which depends primarily on the land, on biological resources for day-to-day survival, livelihoods, and still hosts large populations of tigers, leopards, snow leopards, elephants and much more.

People don’t necessarily view wildlife as alien. Most local communities and local cultures accept all forms of nature as a part of their lives. That’s a huge, huge plus point. We can see by some metrics, like animal population numbers and lack of large mammal extinction, that we’ve done a pretty good job.

But post-1990 we’re seeing a great push for what is called development. This notion of development rides on destroying functional ecosystems. Native wildlife habitats are being destroyed for so-called human benefit. Where will wildlife go? So, they’re coming more and more into human-dominated habitats. Conflicts are increasing.

To answer your question, there is hubris and great elements of impunity seeping right through the cheetah project. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has literally befuddled the Supreme Court by saying one thing and doing quite another. They went to the Supreme Court saying, allow us to explore habitats other than Kuno for the introduction of African cheetahs. Years go by and judges change. And we end up with the cheetahs going to Kuno.

In an appeal to the court on the 2013 order, which said it’s illegal to bring African cheetahs to India, particularly to Kuno, the NTCA  sought relief. It told the court, allow us to explore other habitats. The two that were mentioned were Nauradehi in Madhya Pradesh and Sathyamangalam in Tamil Nadu. And Sathyamangalam was not even surveyed. This is just one example of how this project is riddled with poor science, acts of impunity and disrespect for the rule of law. 

The CAP promises many things. For example, that the cheetahs will serve as a flagship for saving open natural ecosystems, like grasslands, savannahs and scrub forest.

The cheetah project is a big black box at this point of time

If the cheetahs are not able to survive and are held captive in six square kilometres of enclosures, how are they going to have any impact on the broader conservation goals? At the same time, populations of critically endangered species like caracal and the Great Indian Bustard are declining. Most recently, we find the numbers of the lesser florican also drastically going down. We are not paying attention to any of this. 

 

Q: In what other ways has the Supreme Court been misled?

The most specific way is that they (the NTCA) said they will not disrupt lion translocation to Kuno and that they will consider other habitats for the cheetahs. This hasn’t happened.

The January 2020 order of the Supreme Court appointed a committee to monitor the implementation of the cheetah introduction project. In 2023, the government told the court, we have the experts, allow us to do it, there is no need for monitoring by the committee. So even the court-appointed committee has more or less stopped functioning.  

 

Q: Should the cheetahs not have come to India? Or is it that cheetahs coming to Kuno has been a big mistake? 

To establish any wildlife population, the very minimum basic requirement is going to be adequate space. And for that we need to understand the ecology of the species, especially its spatial ecology and its social organization. Cheetahs, by definition, are a low-density and wide-ranging species. That means one to two cheetahs in 100 square kilometres of the best habitat. To establish a population, we’re talking of 50 or more animals.

We need at least 4,000 to 5,000, possibly up to 8,000, square kilometres of good quality habitats, sufficient prey and minimal disturbance to establish a population of free-ranging cheetahs in the wild.

Currently, India just does not have that amount of space of the desired habitat quality. If we are serious about establishing a cheetah population, we first need to identify and secure habitats, ensure that these are connected, well-protected and monitored for several years, before bringing the cheetahs. 

Here we have brought the cheetahs, we are holding them captive for two years. We then say Gandhi Sagar is being readied for them as well as Nauradehi. And we will establish a captive breeding centre in Banni. These are not science-based conservation plans but plans which are a result of muddled thinking. 

 

Q: Is there any merit at all in bringing cheetahs to India? 

The crux of the argument is that the cheetahs have gone locally extinct in our country and hence it’s our moral and ethical responsibility to bring them back. The other argument is that open natural ecosystems, like grasslands, scrub thorn forests, are neglected and hence need a push in terms of conservation. The example given is Project Tiger which served as a flagship for conserving our forests. That’s a moot point. But that’s the analogy that’s being provided.

If we don’t have sufficient space for the cheetah to roam freely, how is it then going to play that flagship role? We are constantly giving away these habitats for huge solar energy plants, wind farms, and other projects which change the land use, everything that goes against the stated aim of the cheetah project.

Much of these habitats is still considered wastelands. India has a Wasteland Atlas. If we are serious about conservation, we should remove these habitats from the Wasteland Atlas and give such habitats the respect and importance they deserve. 

We don’t need to bring in the African cheetah to do that. India has the Great Indian Bustard, the lesser florican, caracal, wolf, chinkara, the blackbuck. I could go on and on. In what way do these lack charisma? Are these not, at least many of these, critically endangered species?

We really need to be focusing on habitats and the species that are already native to India. If we get all of that right, maybe 15 to 20 years down the line when habitats are ready, we can consider bringing cheetahs.

A better option would be to work with Iran, which has native Asiatic cheetahs, collaborate with them, enhance habitat protection, grow the population, learn from that process and ensure that we are able to conserve Asiatic cheetahs in Iran to begin with. Saudi Arabia is planning to establish a cheetah population. We need to cooperate internationally rather than bring these animals to India for the glitz.

 

Q: This has become a high-visibility vanity project rather than a serious wildlife enhancement project in the country. Is that correct? 

Well, I wish it was just that. I called this a vanity project in 2022. I’ve also called it a glorified safari park, and that’s what it’s turning out to be. But the bigger problem is all the other negative impacts it’s having, that we can ill afford. 

One of the key stated goals of the cheetah project is that it was going to enhance wildlife conservation and improve habitats. But the way the project has been implemented, the chances of that ever happening are close to zero.

There’s no guarantee these cheetahs will be released because soon after the recent announcement the only free-ranging cheetah died under what I think are rather mysterious circumstances. The initial reports are suggesting that it drowned. Wild animals seldom drown in their natural habitat. We’ll have to wait and see what actually happened.

 

Q: Kuno was actually readied for the Asiatic lions. What has happened to them now that the cheetahs have been housed there instead?

They have been playing hooky with the Court regarding the lions. The Court said on April 15, 2013, Please translocate the lions from Gir to Kuno in letter and spirit within six months. It’s 11 years now and we still don’t see any movement on that. The government is only making excuses. A contempt petition was filed, that unfortunately got dismissed. A second contempt petition is working its way through the Court.

An epidemic struck the lions in 2018. We lost, as per official numbers, between 30 to 40 lions. I know for a fact that the number of lions that died is way above that. It has been confirmed that the deaths were due to diseases like babesiosis and canine distemper. These are deadly diseases.

Currently, about 50 percent or more of the existing 700 to 800 lions are not living within the protected area. They are roaming around in human-dominated habitats. They’re getting run over by trains, by trucks. They’re getting electrocuted and falling into open wells. They are attacking people.

So, it’s a mess. And when they’re outside the protected area, their exposure to diseases increases exponentially because we have unvaccinated livestock. We have dogs roaming around. They are feeding on dead animals together. As a result, disease transmission becomes easier.

The lions roaming outside come easily into contact with the lions inside the protected area. We are tempting fate by not taking the right action which is dictated by science, and let us not forget the 2013 lion translocation order of the Supreme Court.  

Many of the so-called cheetah experts who have been involved with the project are largely self-proclaimed. We’re not dealing with real and proven expertise because we don’t want to listen to what they say. Even two of the great champions of this project have been thrown by the wayside last year because they started questioning some of the actions on the ground.

The cheetah project is reflective of the total contempt with which science is being held when it comes to wildlife conservation. And the complete unwillingness to listen.

 

Q: Who currently runs wildlife policy in this country?  

That’s a good question, I wish I knew the answer. 

 

Q: Are we relying too much on the courts?

It all boils down to governance. Wildlife is also impacted by how India is governed. We are facing challenges because nature is being seen as expendable. In the past few years, many of us have been very vocal about the continued destruction of functional natural ecosystems. It should not be justified as development. That’s a huge mistake. Destruction of nature is not development — not in the name of national security, or GDP growth, or poverty alleviation. Nature should just not be destroyed. It’s a no-go area. 

 

Ravi Chellam is a wildlife biologist and conservation scientist based in Bengaluru. He is CEO of Metastring Foundation and coordinator of Biodiversity Collaborative. The views expressed are independent and personal.