The Arduous Ambition of Bringing the Cheetah Home

On September 17, 2022, eight African cheetahs landed at Gwalior airport after a 10-hour flight from Namibia. The widely publicised event was a part of Project Cheetah, India’s effort to reintroduce the big cat after its extermination from the subcontinent in 1952.

However, this event is only an early step. Next month, twelve more cheetahs are set to arrive from South Africa. Meanwhile, three more protected areas, two in Madhya Pradesh and one in Rajasthan, are being prepped for future relocations. The reintroduction project is slated to be an ambitious, long-term endeavour — lasting at least 25 years — that will require commitment of resources and coordination from various factions of government machinery.

As expected, the cheetah’s arrival made headlines but also raised questions. Some conservation experts called it an “ecologically unsound, expensive distraction” and questioned the African cheetah’s survival in an alien habitat. Activists also raised concerns about the rights of locals who will be relocated to make room for the charismatic big cat.

We spoke to Yadvendradev Jhala, lead author of the Cheetah Action Plan and Dean of the Wildlife Institute of India, about why it is important to bring the cheetah back, what to expect next, and his responses to the criticism surrounding the project.

This isn’t the first time an Indian government has tried to reintroduce the cheetah. In 1952, during the first wildlife board meeting of independent India, the government assigned the cheetah “special priority”. Previous governments have made moves to bring the cheetah back. How and when did you get involved?

I have been charmed by the cheetah since childhood. In fact, for my PhD, I wanted to study the interaction between the cheetah and the blackbuck, one of the animals it frequently preyed on in the Indian landscape. Unfortunately, there were no cheetahs in India, and I decided to study wolves and blackbuck instead. So, my passion for it goes back to the early 1990s. However, in 2009 I was invited to attend a symposium at Gajner, Rajasthan, organised by the Wildlife Trust of India on reintroducing the cheetah to India. Some of the renowned big cat experts from the world were present. After this event, the Minister of Environment and Forest, Jairam Ramesh reached out to Dr MK Ranjitsinh and me to look for potential sites to reintroduce the cheetah. We assessed ten sites across the country in 2010, based on our findings, we authored the first report for such a translocation. We re-evaluated the most promising sites in 2020 and narrowed it down to five — Kuno National Park, Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary, and Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, and Mukundara and Shahgarh Bulge in Rajasthan. Kuno, which was ready and waiting for lions to be relocated there, still remains one of the best. 

But things didn’t go according to plan. The Supreme Court passed a judgement quashing the move.

Yes. In 2013, the Supreme Court declared it illegal to translocate the African cheetah to Kuno. It also argued that lions must be given preference over them. The National Tiger Conservation Authority, MoEFCC, with assistance from Dr. MK Ranjitsinh and I, as a part of the Wildlife Institute of India, filed an affidavit in court arguing against it and waited.

The idea that lions should be given preference over cheetahs in Kuno has also been one of the loudest criticisms of the project. Asiatic lions were proposed to be transferred to Kuno. Though Gujarat has a healthy population of lions, conservationists fear that in the event of an epidemic, locked in a single geographic location, the lions could be at grave risk. Why give the cheetah precedence over the lion?

I totally agree with the critique. The lions do need a second population away from Gir. In fact, I was appointed by the Supreme Court as a part of a committee to reintroduce lions in Kuno. Dr Ravi Chellam and I developed the action plan for the Ministry of Environment and Forest, for bringing them in as directed by the court, but it has not yet worked out. The question is not if the lion OR the cheetah should be relocated to Kuno. Who said if the cheetah is here, the lions cannot come? They can both live in the same landscape as had been the case in the not so distant past. In fact, the lion, the tiger, the leopard, and the cheetah can all share the same habitat. It will be a first in the modern world.

The introduction of lions might keep the leopard population in check and, in turn, be beneficial for the cheetah’s survival. The leopard poses a larger threat to the cheetah.

Lions live in groups and cheetah can easily detect them as they are noisy compared to leopards who live alone and are stealthier.

Meanwhile, in 2020, the order to relocate cheetahs was reconsidered, and it said that the African cheetah could be reintroduced in India on an experimental basis. We restarted our work on the cheetah project.

Why, in your opinion, is this cheetah reintroduction important?

Big carnivores play a regulatory function. They prey on the young, the old, the weak and the diseased and act as an evolutionary force in shaping the entire ecosystem. They keep the genetics of a prey population extremely fit. The cheetah did that for several of our grassland habitats before being killed. Bringing the cheetah back has the potential to fill this ecological niche and restore these ecosystems. Introducing a large predator maintains the diversity of its prey base and other species in the ecosystem. For example, the blackbuck is the fastest land animal in India. However, its speed has evolved to get away from the cheetah. We’ve removed this evolutionary force from the Indian subcontinent, and it is our job to bring it back.

Concerns have been raised about the fact that the African cheetah is a different subspecies. They’ve evolved differently.

The IUCN guidelines for reintroductions and other conservation introductions are clear. If a population is exterminated, you bring in the closest subspecies. In the case of the cheetah, the closest subspecies is found in Iran. Relocating it would have been ideal. However, there are only 15 cheetahs alive in Iran. You cannot deplete that population. Our only option was to turn to Africa. Four thousand of the 7000-odd cheetahs in the world are found in southern Africa. It is a healthy, growing population. They have lived in the wild, yet they are familiar to human beings and are used to having them around. This is ideal for translocation. 

But aren’t these animals from fenced game reserves in Africa? And here, in India, they will be released into unfenced forests. Will they be familiar with the conditions of the wilderness here in India and be able to adapt?

Out of the eight cheetahs, four are from free-ranging areas where they weren’t fenced at all. So, they’ve been in the same conditions as Kuno. Two others come from game reserves which are fenced, but it’s a large area of 400 sq km, so they are as good as free ranging. Three of the animals were rescued at a young age and have been on the property of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, Namibia, where they have been hand-reared. These individuals could be critiqued as animals who may not be used to conditions in the wild, but they were already in the process of being rewilded in Namibia before their translocation, this process can now be completed in India.

Of course, Africa and India are different continents, and each population has evolved differently. If we aren’t careful, exotic diseases can be exposed to Indian wildlife. And that is why we have one-month quarantines in both countries and vaccinations for major diseases done on all cheetahs. We have the best vets and epidemiologists from Africa and India on the project.

When the cheetahs are released from the fenced bomas (enclosures), they will have to fend for themselves. They will have to relearn everything — where the prey and waterholes are, how to hunt here. All of them will be radio-collared, and we’ll have to closely monitor them daily. They may stray outside Kuno, and we’ll have to find ways to bring them back. I am expecting a 50 per cent mortality rate during this stage.

That seems high…

The cheetah in the wild has a higher mortality rate than other carnivores. About 70 per cent cubs don’t reach adulthood. But we have factored that into our action plan. We are bringing in 12 more individuals from South Africa, so these losses are offset. We will continue to relocate more cheetahs from Africa until we establish a viable population in India. The project will take anywhere between 25-30 years to take shape and stabilise. Like Project Tiger, which by safeguarding the tiger, intended to protect an entire ecosystem, Project Cheetah will need to be managed and governed on the same lines, as an ecosystem maintenance activity project.

We will have to watch them carefully until they establish a home range, and start breeding. Once they do that, we are good. 

What does it mean to establish a home range mean?

Cheetahs, like other large carnivores, have defined ranges. They will locate water and prey, and mark their territories. Once they get comfortable, they will breed. That’s when they will be considered to have established a home range.

Just a few weeks ago, eight wildlife scientists argued that there isn’t enough space to hold cheetahs in Kuno or India. They’ve quoted studies of free-ranging cheetah populations in eastern Africa that show one cheetah would require a home range of at least 100 sq km. Kuno is just over 300 sq km, so by these estimates, it should not hold more than three cheetahs, but we have eight. Twelve more are expected to come from South Africa. So how is this going to work?

We don’t have large habitats like in Africa. We are aware of that. These quoted numbers are for large Eastern African habitats like Serengeti and Masai Mara. This doesn’t mean cheetahs cannot survive in smaller areas. In Africa, cheetahs need large home ranges to compete with other carnivores – lions, hyenas, and wild dogs. Cheetahs are docile compared to these animals. So, they must roam in much larger areas to search for prey. In Kuno, you don’t have other predators except for the leopard.

Managing the cheetah population in India will be similar to how it is managed in South Africa. This cheetah population is going to be a “managed metapopulation”. (Managed metapopulations are human-mediated translocations to replace the natural movement of animals in areas where their habitat is fragmented, and no natural movement occurs due to a lack of safe corridors between populations.) No single area in India can have enough cheetahs to sustain themselves as a long-term viable population. We must create cheetah habitats and physically move animals between these sites. 

Is this “managed metapopulation” plan ideal?

Ideally, there should be natural corridors, like many tiger reserves have or had. But that’s the irony of the Anthropocene. We live in an era where humans have impacted the planet so badly that natural systems, unless we intervene and manage them, cannot sustain themselves on their own.

But there is one more thing that gives us an advantage. In India, we have a system they don’t have in Africa, and that is the traditional system of tolerance. In Africa, you must put them in fences because people will not tolerate them outside fences. They will kill the cheetahs. But in India, we have tigers and lions that live outside protected areas. None of our national parks is fenced, and that is because of the cultural and religious attitude of the people towards wildlife. We are tolerant towards them. The boundaries of Kuno National Park are not its only habitat. The cheetah may roam beyond these boundaries of protected areas. 

So the cheetah is likely to stray out of Kuno. Won’t this create complications? Aren’t you expecting conflict?

There is no record anywhere of a cheetah having killed a human being. Livestock may be at risk, they may eat a sheep or a calf, and we have accounted for compensation schemes for that in our action plan.

In fact, the locals will benefit from the cheetah’s arrival in the form of ecotourism opportunities. Cheetahs will create livelihoods. Already, the real estate value of Kuno has gone up from Rs 20,000 per bigha to Rs 20 lakh. The people have overnight become millionaires. Once cheetahs settle down in Kuno after their release, tourists are likely to be drawn like magnets to visit and see the animals in their free-ranging state.

The arrival of the cheetah might form a social and economic fence, which is much more effective than a physical fence protecting wildlife from people. We’ve seen this in Saurashtra with the lions, and we’ve seen this in several other national parks where people have earned from opportunities like these.  

The approximate cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 224 crores. Many have argued that this is an expensive vanity project. Why not do the same thing for threatened species in India that are in dire need of conservation? Why not do the same thing for lions and great Indian bustards?

The answer is that we should. It should not be this or that; it should be this AND that. These funds are not carved out of other species allocations, if they are not used for restoring cheetah habitats they will be lost to conservation.

I have been fighting all my life for all these species. I have done research on wolves and have tried to save them. I have been instrumental in starting the species recovery programme on the great Indian bustards. I have been advocating for a second home for Asiatic lions all my life. I don’t know why the critics are saying we are trying to promote cheetahs over these animals.

The government allocates funds based on its priorities and interests. Charismatic species like the cheetah interest politicians and policymakers and a reasonable amount of money has been allocated for this. Conservationists must make the most of the political will. This is a fact. One must take the opportunity that comes and utilise it to do conservation. Political will is of utmost importance in making conservation happen. The release of the first cheetahs on Indian soil by the Prime Minister heralds hope for the success of this ambitious project.

What is Project Cheetah really doing? It is making space for wildlife — it is eradicating invasive species in these areas, managing the habitat so that a higher ungulate population is sustained, bringing in funds, and in turn, sustaining a higher carnivore population. We are restoring a habitat. We might be able to restore four protected areas if it goes according to plan. The cheetah is an important tool to do this.

The cheetah also shares its habitat with many critically endangered species, including wolves, caracal and bustards. Gandhi Sagar, another relocation site for the cheetahs, has lesser floricans and remains a potential site for reintroducing great Indian bustards. When the investment comes for restoring these habitats, all these species will flourish.

What about the people who live in and around these habitats? Twenty-four villages have been relocated to make room first for the lions settled here and now the cheetah. What about people’s rights and livelihoods?

Incentivised relocation packages are given to every family to voluntarily move out. They are offered 15 lakhs to relocate, and most people take this package. If you live in a forest, education is an issue, medicine is an issue, and wildlife raids your crops. If you get a chance to live in mainstream society, who wouldn’t take that offer? You cannot evict people for wildlife. That’s the law. So, you offer incentives to create space for wildlife. 

The cheetah typically survives in grassland habitats. News reports say that forests in Kuno are being cleared to make room for the cheetah. Trees have been chopped to create grasslands.

Let me explain this. When a village is relocated or cleared, there is a natural process through which the ecosystem colonises these spaces. First, they turn into grasslands, then they slowly turn into scrublands. Next, trees take root, and forests grow. But as forest managers, we arrest the “grasslands stage”. Especially where agricultural fields once existed, we clear extra woody vegetation to retain grasslands. That’s how the meadows of Kanha have been managed. That’s being done in Kuno — you remove the woody vegetation to arrest its growth — so you have grasslands that are required for the cheetah and its prey.

Today, India’s systems are not large enough. You don’t have 20,000 sq km, like Kruger National Park in South Africa, to let natural processes create habitat mosaics required by different species. In India, you must step in and manage the habitat to meet the specialised needs of various species.

What have been the personal challenges through this project?

It is very stressful to transport a big carnivore across continents when the world is watching. However, the stress doesn’t bother me. I expected the industrialists or the mining lobby to oppose the project, but they have been supportive. I am most disappointed by the conservationists speaking up against it. Have they not understood what we are trying to do? Are they not willing to focus on the good that will come from it?

How are you expecting this project to shape up? What next?

The ideal situation would be to have 300-400 cheetahs in India in 20 years. We should have a healthy breeding population. I would go to the extent of saying that some of these areas could become naturally connected through corridors, and we don’t have to move them. I believe many of our tiger reserves could hold cheetah populations as well.

Photos by Shivang Mehta are on behalf of Wildlife Institute of India. Shivang Mehta's team includes Parveen Chandila, Allen Jacob and Shivendra Gaur.