Three years on, India’s cheetah reintroduction struggles with poor science, delays, and missed grassland targets.
Timeline: Three Years of Mission Cheetah
2022 (September): Eight cheetahs from Namibia arrive at Kuno Nationwide Park. Mission formally launched.
2023 (February): Twelve extra cheetahs translocated from South Africa. One feminine provides beginning to 4 cubs in March (just one survives).
2023–24: Sequence of deaths as a result of infections, stress, and predator conflicts. Considerations develop over extended captivity in bomas. No new imports regardless of the Motion Plan goal of 5–10 yearly.
2024: Worldwide hesitation stalls additional transfers. Panorama growth to Gandhi Sagar and Rajasthan stays largely on paper.
2025: Botswana agrees in precept to ship eight cheetahs — 4 in late 2025, 4 in 2026.
The Stalled Panorama Imaginative and prescient
Gandhi Sagar nonetheless struggles with a weak prey base. Rajasthan has made no seen progress on web site preparation. The bigger concept — that cheetah reintroduction would additionally drive grassland restoration — has barely been acted upon. India’s grasslands proceed to be labelled “wastelands,” leaving them weak to diversion for growth tasks. Consequently, the ecological rationale of the cheetah venture — to make use of the predator as an umbrella species for ecosystem revival — has been diluted.
The place Does the Mission Stand In the present day?
To be honest, Mission Cheetah has not been with out achievements. The actual fact that wild-born cubs appeared in India is a milestone. Veterinary protocols, radio-collaring techniques, and skilled monitoring groups had been arrange in file time. The venture gained some recognition, together with the “Revolutionary Initiative Award” on the Eco Warrior Awards. However these positive factors should be set in opposition to sobering realities. As many as 19 cheetahs, together with 10 cubs, have died in simply three years. Many have spent extended durations in captivity quite than roaming free. Administration has typically appeared advert hoc, with selections taken in response to crises quite than grounded in long-term ecological planning. The short-term emphasis has shifted from rewilding and panorama revival to merely retaining the surviving cheetahs alive.
So, how ought to we assess Mission Cheetah on the three-year mark? The trustworthy reply is that for its long-term aims, it’s nonetheless too early to inform. Reintroductions are complicated, sluggish, and full of setbacks. It could be unrealistic to anticipate a thriving free-ranging cheetah inhabitants inside such a brief span. However on the subject of short-term targets, the image is much less encouraging. Implementation has been weak and riddled with deviations from the Motion Plan. The venture has leaned on poor science and insufficient monitoring, whereas clear evaluation has been conspicuously absent. With out goal evaluation, the identical errors preserve recurring.Equally worrying is the narrative administration. There seems to be strain to current the venture as a grand success, even when proof suggests in any other case. This tendency to rejoice prematurely dangers masking the gaps that want fixing.
This brings us to the central paradox of Mission Cheetah. On paper, it’s about ecological restoration — reviving grasslands, conserving open pure ecosystems, and securing related species. In apply, nevertheless, it has turn into about disaster administration, captive holding, and importing a trickle of cheetahs to take care of appearances.Until the venture realigns itself with its founding function, it dangers changing into little greater than a conservation mascot train. Cheetahs can not survive — not to mention thrive — with out expansive, wholesome habitats, strong prey bases, and landscape-level connectivity. With out these, India dangers retaining cheetahs alive in enclosures whereas their bigger function — ecosystem revival — slips away.
Classes for the Future
The way in which ahead requires extra humility, extra science, and extra honesty. India should guarantee its import commitments. We additionally must introspect what went mistaken in relations with our preliminary cheetah companions -Namibia and South African. Prey base augmentation should be prioritised. Impartial scientific monitoring must be inspired, not resisted. Three years on, Mission Cheetah stands at a crossroads. It stays a robust image of ecological ambition, a reminder that India dared to undo an extinction. However it additionally reveals how ambition can falter when planning is weak, science is sidelined, and politics takes priority over ecology.
It’s nonetheless too early to jot down the venture off, however the warning indicators are laborious to disregard. Until India learns from these three misplaced years and realigns apply with function, Mission Cheetah could also be remembered extra for its spectacle than its substance. The approaching years will determine whether or not the cheetah turns into a real agent of grassland revival, or just a conservation curiosity .
By: Deshdeep Saxena
Pictures courtesy: Kuno Nationwide Park
