African Cheetahs in India?

April 5, 2009

WOW!

Can someone tell the Cheetahs that it is not the INDIA anymore which

their ancestors roamed around 60yrs back.

Its an India of the LAND MAFIA, the TIMBER MAFIA & the WILDLIFE TRADE

MAFIA.

Unless of course the project is a ZOO or a FARM in disguise, I do not

see any sensibility in the ambitious plan of reintroducing the cats.

Ensure protection for the TIGER, LION & the LEOPARD, then my friend,

do talk BIG.

April 6, 2009

I would tend to agree with this assertion. However, there is more to this

issue than this report suggests. The Center for Cellular and Molecular

Biology, built at a cost of 12 crores was negotiating with the Iranian

government to import Cheetahs for cloning and eventual reintroduction in

India. The Iranian President Mohammad Khatami visited CCMB in 2003 and

several scientists from India were meant to visit Iran later and finalise

this deal. However things changed sometime in 2006/2007 when a crucial

United Nations Resolution was moved at the behest of USA to slap sanctions

on Iran for defying the International Atomic Energy Agency to go forward

with their nuclear programmes, especially at the Natanz plant in the Isfahan

province. Iranian diplomats in New Delhi pleaded with Indian officials to

oppose the resolution. At the same time, the Americans asked India to vote

in favour of sanctions for Iran and to condemn Iran for carrying out the

nuclear work in defiance of IAEA. As it turned out, India voted against

Iran. Ensuing this fiasco, the Iranians cancelled the Cheetah transfer

programme and denied visas to Indian scientists to visit Iran. Iran

suggested if India wanted Cheetahs, the animals should be taken from Africa.

This was told to me by a visiting Iranian animal welfare worker in Madras in

2007(Incidentally this gentleman is also an International Relations Expert,

I have his card somewhere). The concerns expressed on the validity of the

programme are reasonable and extremely relevant.

On 4/5/09, azam24x7 <azam24x7 wrote:

>

> WOW!

>

> Can someone tell the Cheetahs that it is not the INDIA anymore which

> their ancestors roamed around 60yrs back.

> Its an India of the LAND MAFIA, the TIMBER MAFIA & the WILDLIFE TRADE

> MAFIA.

>

> Unless of course the project is a ZOO or a FARM in disguise, I do not

> see any sensibility in the ambitious plan of reintroducing the cats.

>

> Ensure protection for the TIGER, LION & the LEOPARD, then my friend,

> do talk BIG.

>

April 6, 2009

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1165783.cms

No cloning of Cheetah: Iran9 Jul 2005, 0101 hrs IST, Kounteya Sinha, TNN

NEW DELHI: India's ambitious plan to clone the cheetah, which vanished from

the subcontinent in 1962 due to largescale hunting, has run into a dead

end.

Iran has refused to send two cheetahs — a male and a female — to India for

research purposes. They have also refused to allow a team of scientists from

Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and MolecularBiology (CCMB) to travel to

Iran to collect sperm and tissue samples from a cheetah in a zoo there.

The CCMB has been trying for over six years to get some tissues of the

animal from Iran for cloning.

CCMB director Lalji Singh and his team wanted to take the genes from live

cheetah cells and fuse it with empty leopard eggs.

Any resulting embryos would then be carried in leopard surrogates. Iran is

the only country where a close relative of the extinct Indian cheetah is

found.

Singh, who was the first scientist in India to use DNA fingerprinting to

solve criminal cases, said, " Iran and India were to jointly work on the

conservation of cheetahs in Iran and cloning of cheetahs in India.

A team comprising members from the ministry of environment and forests, Zoo

Authority of India, Wildlife Institute of India and the CCMB were to leave

for Iran. I had personally made this request to Iranian president Mohammad

Khatami when he visited CCMB. "

" However, the Iranian government just recently informed us that they will

not loan India two cheetahs or allow us to travel to Iran for sample

collection, " he said, adding, " The letter asked us to contact Africa which

is home to a lot more cheetahs. "

CCMB, which has been working on this project for the past six years was also

ready with a special lab near Nehru Zoological Park.

The lab which costed Rs 12 crores and was to be launched in August had

facilities to develop test-tube baby methods, egg and sperm banks and

cloning technology to preserve endangered species.

Scientists in CCMB were also being trained in nucleus transfer, using the

same technique on rats, mice and rabbits.

On Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 11:54 AM, <

journalistandanimals wrote:

> I would tend to agree with this assertion. However, there is more to

> this

> issue than this report suggests. The Center for Cellular and Molecular

> Biology, built at a cost of 12 crores was negotiating with the Iranian

> government to import Cheetahs for cloning and eventual reintroduction in

> India. The Iranian President Mohammad Khatami visited CCMB in 2003 and

> several scientists from India were meant to visit Iran later and finalise

> this deal. However things changed sometime in 2006/2007 when a crucial

> United Nations Resolution was moved at the behest of USA to slap sanctions

> on Iran for defying the International Atomic Energy Agency to go forward

> with their nuclear programmes, especially at the Natanz plant in the

> Isfahan

> province. Iranian diplomats in New Delhi pleaded with Indian officials to

> oppose the resolution. At the same time, the Americans asked India to vote

> in favour of sanctions for Iran and to condemn Iran for carrying out the

> nuclear work in defiance of IAEA. As it turned out, India voted against

> Iran. Ensuing this fiasco, the Iranians cancelled the Cheetah transfer

> programme and denied visas to Indian scientists to visit Iran. Iran

> suggested if India wanted Cheetahs, the animals should be taken from

> Africa.

> This was told to me by a visiting Iranian animal welfare worker in Madras

> in

> 2007(Incidentally this gentleman is also an International Relations Expert,

> I have his card somewhere). The concerns expressed on the validity of the

> programme are reasonable and extremely relevant.

>

> On 4/5/09, azam24x7 <azam24x7 <azam24x7%40gmail.com>> wrote:

> >

> > WOW!

> >

> > Can someone tell the Cheetahs that it is not the INDIA anymore which

> > their ancestors roamed around 60yrs back.

> > Its an India of the LAND MAFIA, the TIMBER MAFIA & the WILDLIFE TRADE

> > MAFIA.

> >

> > Unless of course the project is a ZOO or a FARM in disguise, I do not

> > see any sensibility in the ambitious plan of reintroducing the cats.

> >

> > Ensure protection for the TIGER, LION & the LEOPARD, then my friend,

> > do talk BIG.

> >

>

April 6, 2009

Dear Shubho,

I came across the following link which has a comment from Mr. V.P. Singh who

is one of the key persons in this cheetah introduction project.

His seems to live in a fantasy world and certainly not present day India.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/the-cheetah-orphans/what-makes-a-rehabil\

itation-program-work/24/

He is inspired by an African film which documents the successful raising of

African cheetah orphans and is fantasized by the idea of doing exactly the

same back here in India and that too with the African cheetahs.

Add to that the horrendous ambitions of our Forest Department which instead

of acknowledging their past failures with Cheetahs is all out to fund a ZERO

conservation animal husbandry project.

Azam