Indian delegation visits Namibia to discuss translocation of cheetahs | Latest India News

An Indian delegation left for Namibia on Thursday to discuss the logistics of relocating the cheetahs with the Namibian government, according to people familiar with the development.

The team, made up of representatives from the National Tiger Conservation Authority, the Ministry of Environment, the Wildlife Institute of India and the Madhya Pradesh government, will identify suitable cheetahs to begin the health screening process and quarantine them for travel to India. The cheetahs will eventually be moved to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

“We cannot say how long this process will take. We have to sort out the logistics first,” said a senior NTCA official, who asked not to be named.

“The objective of the project is to establish a viable cheetah metapopulation in India that enables the cheetah to fulfill its functional role as a top predator and provide space for the expansion of the cheetah into its historical range, thereby contributing to its global conservation efforts,” said a note shared by the NTCA.

Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav is also expected to join the talks when he visits Africa in March, a second official added.

“A team of experts is leaving this morning for Namibia to finalize the arrangements for the transfer of 8 to 10 cheetahs to Kuno National Park in MP. An initiative launched in 2010 is finally bearing fruit. I wish them the best!” tweeted Jairam Ramesh, the leader of Congress and a former environment minister, during which the plan was drawn up.

“As is evident, the introduction of the cheetah is not just a species recovery program, but an effort to restore ecosystems with a lost element that has played an important role in their evolutionary history, enabling ecosystems to provide services to their full potential and utilize the cheetah as an umbrella species for biodiversity conservation of grasslands, savannahs and open forest systems,” the NTCA note adds.

Some experts have criticized the cheetah reintroduction plan for depriving the lions of suitable habitat.

“The introduction of African cheetahs into Kuno National Park will further delay the translocation of the Asiatic lion, which will lead to increased risks for the last surviving wild lion population in Asia. Billions of rupees have been spent by the Indian government and the state of Madhya Pradesh to prepare Kuno to welcome the lions.Nine years after the 2013 SC order on the transfer of lions to Kuno, the lions have not yet been transferred and the plans to introduce African cheetahs The committee of experts appointed by the Supreme Court in 2013 to advise the government on the translocation of lions, of which I am a member, has not met since December 2016. At our last meeting in Kuno , everyone except the Gujarat state government officials firmly stated that Kuno was ready to receive the lions.But neither the Union government nor the Gujarat state government have taken concrete steps to relocate lions,” said Ravi Chellam, CEO of the Metastring Foundation and member of the Biodiversity Collaborative.

According to the “Action Plan for the Introduction of Cheetah in India” released by the Ministry of Environment during the 19th meeting of the National Tiger Conservation Authority last month, a cohort of about 12 to 14 cheetahs will be imported from South Africa or Namibia and each of them will be equipped with a satellite-GPS-very high frequency radio collar.

Union Environment Minister Yadav said in a January 5 statement, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen on the protection and conservation of seven big cats…Cheetahs numbering 50 on a period of five years will be introduced in various parks”.

International transport will be done either by commercial airline or chartered flight, after which the wildcats will be transported to Kuno Palpur National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh. Officials who attended the meeting said the cheetah, the world’s fastest land animal, was due to be reintroduced to the country in November 2021, but the plan was derailed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “The lineage and condition of the animals must be checked in the host country to ensure that they do not come from an excessively inbred herd and that they belong to the ideal age group, in order to conform to the needs of a founding population,” said the more than 300-page plan.