Eight more cheetahs would be released into the wild in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park (KNP) in the next few weeks, said Cheetah Steering Committee chairperson Rajesh Gopal on Thursday.
As of now, seven cheetahs have been released in the wild, and 11, including a cub, are in the six square km enclosure.
“KNP has enough space for 20 cheetahs, so out of 10 adult cheetahs who are in the enclosure, eight will be released in the wild soon,” said the head of the 11-member committee constituted last week.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) had last week constituted an 11-member committee and appointed Gopal, secretary general of Global Tiger Forum, as its chairman.
The committee was formed following the death of three cheetah cubs in three days last week.
“KNP has enough space for cheetahs, who can explore an area of up to 1500 sq km. They have an entire landscape to roam around. If they enter Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, the forest officials of these states should be ready for joint surveillance with MP,” Gopal said.
Gopal said it was “laughable” to stop a cheetah from exploring the landscape and entering other states after international experts advised fencing cheetah habitats in India. “In India, tiger roams around everywhere. They even go to Nepal and Bhutan and come back on their own. Exploring the landscape is the nature of wild animals,” said Gopal, adding that cheetahs will be allowed to explore their territory.
“We won’t go for fenced habitat, as suggested by South Africa metapopulation manager Vincent Van Der Merwe, for cheetahs as it is absurd to think of fencing for a wild animal,” Gopal said.
“We have our own style of handling wild animals. We are successfully handling tigers and we can handle cheetah in the same way without any conflict. The fencing will restrict the gene flow,” he added.
Meanwhile, forest officials expressed concern about the idea of releasing more cheetahs in the wild, claiming it would be tough to manage.
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“We have space as well as human resource constraints. To chase and monitor 15 cheetahs will be a tough task for us. We are surprised that they want to release eight more cheetahs in the wild in KNP,” said an official, requesting anonymity.
The MP forest department had tranquilised a Namibian cheetah named Vayu, who in April reached the UP border while exploring his territory. He was brought back and released in the wild in March.
According to the committee, at least 50 cheetahs are required for the success of the Cheetan Translocation Project.
For the new ones, which would come next year, a few more sites will be developed in India, said a committee member.
Gopal said a GIS-based landscape fragmentation analysis will be conducted to help the state authorities identify vulnerable areas. He also said that community awareness will be taken place and a community engagement program will run in the area for the cheetah project.
The committee is also going to write to the Union ministry of education and the state education department to include the cheetah project in the syllabus so that the younger generation will be aware of cheetah and efforts being made for the reintroduction.
“The committee was informed about everything. Now, they will take a decision. We will act accordingly,” MP chief wildlife warden JS Chauhan said.
