African cheetah translocation to India

India's native subspecies of the <a href="/facts/Cheetah/Lk963mfF">cheetah</a>—the <a href="/facts/Asiatic_cheetah/A0XNTQGB">Asiatic cheetah</a> (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus)—became <a href="/facts/Locally_extinct/DbRYtFPq">extinct there</a> in the mid-20th century. Since then, the Asiatic subspecies has survived only in Iran in critically endangered numbers. In September 2022, small numbers of <a href="/facts/Southeast_African_cheetah/7ezprbb1">Southeast African cheetah</a> (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus), a <a href="/facts/Introduced_species/s0aHefyp">non-native</a> sub-species in India, were <a href="/facts/Species_translocation/jYyVod10">translocated</a> from <a href="/facts/Namibia/ahXuaypy">Namibia</a> and <a href="/facts/South_Africa/vvXQpLgq">South Africa</a> to a national park in India. The translocation to <a href="/facts/Kuno_National_Park/JpjSuy98">Kuno National Park</a> in <a href="/facts/Central_India/LqI923yw">Central India</a> was permitted on a short-term basis by the <a href="/facts/Supreme_Court_of_India/GfYduSqA">Supreme Court of India</a> in January 2020.
The Asiatic cheetah whose significant cultural history in <a href="/facts/South_Asia/7gTqe3hY">South Asia</a> had given the <a href="/facts/Sanskrit/ychfjhlx">Sanskrit</a>-derived vernacular name "cheetah", or "spotted", to the species, Acinonyx jubatus, also had a gradual history of habitat loss in the region. Before the <a href="/facts/Thorn_forest/2S5B3byD">thorn forests</a> in the <a href="/facts/Punjab/gyyuKVSp">Punjab</a> region—to the northwest—were cleared for agriculture and human settlement, they were intermixed with open grasslands grazed by large herds of <a href="/facts/Blackbuck/e7tWEhXV">blackbuck</a>; these co-existed with their main natural predator, the Asiatic cheetah. In the <a href="/facts/Early_modern_era/hhpHM721">early modern era</a>, tame cheetahs had been kept for the pursuit of <a href="/facts/Game_(hunting)/2l9PGr3X">game</a> by South Asian nobility. As a result, the blackbuck is no longer a <a href="/facts/Neontology/YK8uj7qU">living species</a> in the Punjab region. A combination of similar habitat loss, prey depletion, and trophy hunting during the <a href="/facts/British_Raj/hBe6wvPS">British Raj</a> in India led to the extinction of the Asiatic cheetah in other regions of its habitat, the last recorded killing taking place in 1947, when South Asia was on the verge of <a href="/facts/Partition_of_India/c8xmUWfG">decolonization</a>.
Discussions on cheetah introduction began after the mid-1950s. Proposals were made to the governments of Iran in the 1970s, but unsuccessfully. Offers were made by the government of Kenya beginning in the 1980s but by 2012 the Supreme Court of India had outlawed the project for a species translocation, considering it, in addition, an "introduction" rather than a "reintroduction." In January 2020, the court reversed its 2012 decision, and allowed for the import of small numbers on an experimental basis. On 17 September 2022, five female and three male southeast African cheetahs, between the ages of four and six, were transported by air from Namibia and released in a quarantined enclosure within Kuno National Park in the state of <a href="/facts/Madhya_Pradesh/h8GnUBv6">Madhya Pradesh</a>. The relocation was supervised by <a href="/facts/Laurie_Marker/nGEnqGuS">Laurie Marker</a>, of the Namibia-based <a href="/facts/Cheetah_Conservation_Fund/C4Y50nf9">Cheetah Conservation Fund</a> and <a href="/facts/Yadvendradev_Vikramsinh_Jhala/X2MqvT5k">Yadvendradev Jhala</a> of the <a href="/facts/Wildlife_Institute_of_India/M0Uj6f5p">Wildlife Institute of India</a>. The cheetahs, fitted with radio collars, were moved to a larger enclosure in November. A further 12 cheetahs arrived from <a href="/facts/South_Africa/vvXQpLgq">South Africa</a> in February 2023 and began to be released into the park in March 2023. That month a cheetah gave birth to four cubs, the first recorded live cheetah birth in India in over 70 years. The first death was reported later in the month and by January 2024, ten animals had died.
The scientific reaction to the translocation has been mixed. Veterinary pharmacologist Adrian Tordiffe views India as providing a "protected space" for a threatened population. Zoologist <a href="/facts/K._Ullas_Karanth/tEr3g7Uk">K. Ullas Karanth</a> has been critical of the effort, conjecturing that potential mortalities might require a continual import of African cheetahs. Kuno National Park is a relatively new national park fully established in 2018. Scientists have expressed concern that 20 cheetahs from Africa with typically large individual territories of 100 km2 (39 sq mi) might be difficult to accommodate in a park with a core zone of 748 km2 (289 sq mi) and a buffer zone of 487 km2 (188 sq mi). Increasing cheetah populations might lead to the animals venturing out of the core zones of the park into adjoining agricultural lands and non-forested areas, bringing them into conflict with humans. With this in mind, the Supreme Court of India ordered the Indian government to look for alternative parks to accommodate a potentially growing population. The African cheetahs had been projected to be a key species of a new phase of <a href="/facts/Ecological_restoration/gJ6wT9Gg">ecological restoration</a> in India. By September 17, 2024, the second anniversary of the introduction, all surviving 12 adult cheetahs and 12 cubs were limited to protective enclosures.

African cheetah translocation to India open-in-new

African cheetah translocation to India