8 more cheetahs to be released, no fencing of habitat: Panel chief
Eight more cheetahs will be released into the wild at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park (KNP) in the next few weeks, a high-level committee formed to monitor the progress of the Cheetah reintroduction project announced on Thursday.
The committee dismissed claims of the state forest department that KNP does not have enough space to accommodate all the cheetahs and also rejected the views of African experts that India should fence the habitats for the wild animal. “KNP has enough space for 20 cheetahs. So of the 10 adult cheetahs who are in the enclosure, eight will be released into the wild soon,” Rajesh Gopal, head of the Cheetah Project Steering Committee, said.
On September 17 last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the first batch of eight cheetahs from Namibia into a quarantine enclosure at KNP, as part of an effort to revive the species’ population in India. Later, 12 cheetahs were brought to the national park from South Africa on February 18 this year.
Last month, the Centre decided to release five more cheetahs at KNP in June. So far, seven cheetahs have been released into the wild, while 11, including a cub, are housed in a 6 sq km enclosure.
The 11-member Cheetah Project Steering Committee was constituted by the Centre after the death of three cheetah cubs last week. A total of six cheetahs (including the three cubs) have died in the last two months. There are now 18 cheetahs, including one cub, at KNP. Experts have maintained that this is not out of the prodinary as the the survival rate of cheetah cubs is low.
In April, the state forest department asked the National Tiger Conservation Authority to find a second home for the cheetahs, saying Kuno may not be able to accommodate more than 10 of the big cats. Gopal, however, said KNP has enough space for 20 cheetahs.
Gopal rejected South Africa wildlife expert Vincent van der Merwe’s suggestion to fence cheetah habitats in India. “There has never been a successful reintroduction (of cheetahs) into an unfenced reserve,” Merwe said.
Reacting to his remarks, Gopal said: “We have our own style of handling wild animals... The fencing will restrict the gene flow.”