‘The vision is not wrong, but the planning and implementation that has gone horribly wrong.’
IMAGE: A cheetah brought from South Africa at the Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh. Photograph: ANI Photo
Dr Ullas Karanth, the well-known wildlife ecologist who has conducted long-term research on the ecology of tigers, other predators and their prey in India and other parts of Asia, is the Emeritus Director of the Centre for Wildlife Studies, which he founded in 1984.
“I am in favour of restoring cheetahs in India, but I am not in favour of the present project which has been poorly designed scientifically, but aggressively promoted by both the previous UPA government and the present NDA government.” Dr Karanth tells Rediff.com‘s Shobha Warrier.
The concluding segment of a two-part interview:
IMAGE: Cheetahs brought from South Africa were released in an enclosure at the Kuno National Park, February 18, 2023. Photographs: PTI Photo from the Rediff Archives
Does this not highlight the approach human beings have to wildlife?
That’s a different issue. What I am talking about is the ecological factor.
From the beginning, this project was conceived to establish a wild population, and not to put them in a zoo and feed them artificially.
We had cheetahs in captivity from the time of the Mughals and many zoos had cheetahs ever since. But the idea behind ecological restoration is not that; not to keep cheetahs in an enclosure and feed them.
This is what they did; bring chital deer caught in the other parts of MP and dump them in Kuno.
This is not how reintroduction of cheetahs should be done.
The re-introduced animals should hunt natural prey at the release site and survive and breed.
IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra D Modi takes photographs of a cheetah released in the Kuno National Park. Photograph: Press Information Bureau
You mean they should live in a natural habitat?
Yes, the whole idea is to establish a natural population.
If you want to have a zoo, say that you are planning a cheetah zoo.
And what they are doing is in effect, establishing a large cheetah zoo.
Some reports say that they were even being fed meat after release from captivity.
So, by any scientific standard, this is not a re-introduction project.
My main objections to this project are, lack of space, artificial feeding and zoo like management.
Are there areas in India where the cheetahs can have very large space?
There are areas in the Rajasthan desert which perhaps, we could have tried. But it requires 20-30 years of prior effort to make sure a large area and sufficient natural prey are better protected.
You can’t just confine reintroduced cheetahs in an area at unnaturally high densities and feed them.
IMAGE: A cheetah sedated before being flown to India. Photograph: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
Out of the 20 cheetahs that were relocated, six of them have already died…
They were hardly given any time to roam and establish territories.
The moment they moved out of Kuno, which would be their natural instinct, they were caught and brought back.
We would have seen a lot of natural mortality post release and rapid extinction of the founder populations, and the officials are scared of that.
But the cheetahs were not even allowed to explore their habitats.
They kept bringing the cheetahs back as soon as they exhibited their natural tendencies to spread out.
All these deaths are really not part of introduction experiment at all.
They are mostly consequences of disease, strife in captivity, and other artificially induced causes.
These are all captive deaths which can happen in any zoo, and not much relevant to the re-introduction of free ranging animals.
As somebody who has studied big cats, I welcome the idea to create a viable habitat for cheetahs in India.
The vision is not wrong, but the planning and implementation that has gone horribly wrong.
As a re-introduction project, this project is a failure.
IMAGE: Dr Ullas Karanth. Photograph: Kind courtesy Dr Ullas Karanth
Why do you say it’s a good idea? Should we be bringing animals from their natural habitat to a new place?
It’s not that we didn’t have cheetahs in India. Cheetahs were part of Indian fauna.
If you have the resources and the scientific capacity, you should bring them back.
The question is not whether it is right or wrong, the question is whether the idea is good.
I am in favour of restoring cheetahs in India, but I am not in favour of the present project which has been poorly designed scientifically but aggressively promoted by both the previous UPA government and the present NDA government.
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com
