Cheetah Reintroduction project : an Indian environmental journalist puts pen to paper

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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

My thoughts on the cheetah

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Let sleeping cats lie

 

……..-

 

The obituary of the cheetah—that lithe, beautiful cat known for its

remarkable burst of speed—was written in 1947. Though its demise was

authored by a host of causes, the last damning bullets were fired by the

Maharaja of the erstwhile state of Korea in Madhya Pradesh. When motoring

through the forest at night he came across, and killed, three males, “in

perfect condition”. This was the last record of the animal in India, the

cheetah would now only be found in the annals of history.

 

History, it appears, will be rewritten.

 

And the cheetah will be brought back to India. The first, instinctive

reaction is sheer joy. The idea is heady—The Return of the Cheetah. Back

from Neverland. Extinction is not forever. I could picture it in my mind’s

eye—the beautiful ash-gold cat bounding in powerful rapidity over golden

grasslands…closing in on its prey…

 

Which is about the moment the dream sours…where are the verdant grasslands

where the cheetah will live, hunt, mate, breed—the wilds where we plan to

reintroduce the cheetahs?

 

But before we get back to this issue a quick overview: “In the next few

months,” according to the Minister of Environment and Forests, Jairam

Ramesh, “India hopes to be in a position to re-introduce the cheetah in

captivity and, sooner rather than later, into the wild as well.”

 

This is not the first time that India has considered bringing the cheetah

back-the idea has been bandied about for years, since around the time we

lost the cat. Initially, the plan was to get them from Iran where the last

of the Asiatic cheetahs survive. But Iran dashed India’s hopes of importing

a breeding pair—with their cheetahs numbering barely 25, they were simply

not willing to take the risk of shipping out two of them to what was a

highly ambitious—and admittedly iffy venture. They even declined a sample of

tissue to use in a cloning experiment that was proposed to be done by the

Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology. That plan had its

share of problems—cloning is far from a perfect science, often involving

several trials before there is a successful birth. And we have simply not

done even basic scientific research on the cat.

 

All along the question that has plagued the prodigal’s return is the where?

Does India, with its booming population, expanding agriculture and race for

development have space for another big cat?

 

Way back in 1960, pioneer conservationist, member of Indian Board for

Wildlife and author M Krishnan had asked, “But where are the suitable

areas?” and went on to add that, “I do not think the trouble and expense of

getting a few cheetahs for liberation into an Indian sanctuary is justified

–such an experiment, without such a established territory can only fail.

This sentiment was echoed by H S Panwar and Dr Alan Rodgers when preparing

India’s Wildlife Protected Area Network, who wrote that there “are no

suitable areas to reintroduce cheetah into a " wild " situation in this

(semi-arid) zone or elsewhere in India.” A source in the Ministry of

Environment and Forests points out that we simply do not have grasslands

bigger than 40 sq km.

 

However, proponents of the project maintain that there are enough potential

grassland and scrub forests—and that the cheetah will adjust to its habitat,

and that getting the predatpor back will serve to protect crucial grassland

habitat. It may well be remembered here that the other feline occupant of

the scrub forest, the critically endangered Asiatic Lion is barely clinging

on to some 1,400 sq km of habitat. All our big cat areas are man-animal

conflict zones. Lack of habitat, and fragmented habitat pushes tigers,

leopards and lions into human inhabited areas—leading to bitter, and fatal

conflict. Tiger kills livestock-or man, and is killed in retaliation.

 

Who says the fate of the cheetah will be any different, when it

eventually—and hopefully—roams free?

 

In Namibia, from where we propose to buy our cheetah, conflict, due to

livestock loss, is a major issue—and farmers frequently shoot the offending

predator.

 

There is the question of prey base. Though some areas have a fair population

of blackbucks, its preferred diet, these are now mainly in agricultural

fields (with their habitats encroached), and crop depredation is already a

major issue of contention.

 

It is prudent to remember too that the conditions that made the cheetah

extinct in the country have only accentuated. The pressures on its habitat

have increased manifold. During the time of independence, the zero hour for

cheetah, India’s population was barely 30 crore, today it is over 1.20

billion. Livestock has increased fourfold to nearly 500 hundred million,

since independence. Of course, we won’t capture the ‘hunting leopard’, for

royal sport—as done in the past; but there is nothing to stop poaching for

the lucrative skin trade.

 

There are other issues. Should we be importing African cheetahs—a different

subspecies (Acinonyx jubatus) than the one that lived, and died, in

India—the Asiatic Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus)?

 

Frankly, our track record is nothing to be proud of. Our national animal,

the tiger is in dire straits today, with an all time low population of about

1,100. Sixteen tiger reserves—our most sacrosanct protected areas are in

deep trouble, with none or negligible numbers of cats.

 

How then do we justify a fancy multi-million dollar project to bring another

big cat into a fraught, tattered kingdom? Is the very fact that there is big

money involved encouraging organisations and the government to jump on the

bandwagon? Good, long term planning is essential, andcritical questions of

habitat, prey-base, potential conflicts must be considered lest we make a

mess, as currently with tigers. When we sit in September, 2009 to study the

feasibility of the reintroduction, one hopes that the voice of caution will

be heard. Let’s first ensure the protection and survival, of our existing

big cats, before we attempt to bring the dead to life. Let’s first ensure

that we can give the cheetah a safe home so that it flourishes in the wild,

and not a second extinction.

Posted by prerna singh bindra at 9:07

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http://www.theearthheroes.com/PrernaSinghBindra.html

In an arena dominated by ruthless men, this woman has investigated,

explored, networked, fought and researched virtually every aspect of

wildlife conservation and is often the source of first information reports

on the seamier side of wildlife conservation. She unabashedly wears her

heart on her sleeve for India’s forests and its endangered wildlife. Over

the last decade she has evolved, from someone who fell in love with tigers

after watching a female with her three sub-adult cubs in Ranthambhore, to a

wildlife defender who uses passion, drive and investigative skills to smoke

out stories that she shares with the conservation world and the public at

large.

 

Her belief in nature has grown in direct proportion to the destruction

wreaked by a system that trots out policies inimical to wildlife on a daily

basis. One of India’s most prolific environmental and travel writers, she

has worked for a phalanx of newspapers and magazines, including *The Asian

Age*, *Sanctuary Asia*, *India Today*, *The Week and The Pioneer*, hammering

out over 1,000 articles on Indian wildlife and conservation in the process.

She was the one who broke the story on the killing of ‘Bumbooram’, the

famous Ranthambhore tiger that moved former U.S. President Bill Clinton to

make a global appeal for tiger protection.

 

She also demonstrated how easy it was to buy ivory in Gujarat and *Shahtoosh

*shawls in the by-lanes of Srinagar. She followed the trail of the brutal

elephant killings in Orissa and has continuously highlighted the tiger

crisis, even as she wrote about lesser-known endangered fauna, including

lion-tailed macaques and Great Indian Bustards. For her dedication to

wildlife and her role in networking and engaging the public on wildlife

issues, she was presented with the Carl Zeiss Wildlife Conservation Award in

2007. “Why do wild creatures have to economically justify their existence to

us,” she asks of readers in her best-selling book *The King and I: Travels

in Tigerland*. She has helped resurrect Tigerlink, the newsletter started by

the Ranthambhore Foundation and is currently the Managing Editor of

Simplifly, the in- flight magazine for Air Deccan. Prerna Bindra believes in

the power of public opinion, which she feels will help us overcome the most

recent crisis that faces wildlife in India.