Cheetah to make a comeback six decades after last sighting

New Delhi: The cheetah, which can only be appreciated in Indian miniatures depicting emperors on hunting expeditions, may return to India if a government plan to re-introduce it is approved.

At the turn of the last century, India is believed to have had thousands of cheetahs but it has been 60 years since the cheetah was formally declared extinct, wiped out by hunting.

Legend has it that Mughal Emperor Akbar kept more than 1,000 cheetahs for hunting. The maharajas prized it for its ability to bring down antelope and the British called the cheetah, the fastest animal on land, a 'hunting leopard'.

The last sighting was in 1947 when an Indian prince shot three during a single expedition. The few remaining cheetahs in Asia are in the Kavir desert in Iran.

Now Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has commissioned a study to explore reintroducing the cheetah by importing breeding pairs, probably from Namibia.

"The cheetah is the only animal to have been declared extinct in India in the last 1,000 years," he said. "We have to get them from abroad to re-populate the species here."

Ramesh plans to establish breeding population in special enclosures. If this proves successful, then the animals will be released into the wild.

The idea was first mooted by the Wildlife Trust of India. This preliminary plan will be discussed at a meeting of international experts in September in Rajasthan where a budget will be decided to cover the cost of importing the animals and setting up the special enclosures.

Not everyone supports the re-introduction of this supremely elegant animal. Some obvious difficulties are the cheetah's delicate immune system, the high rates of cub mortality, and its exacting territorial habits - it hates being in a confined space and prefers to roam freely.

In addition, the cheetah will have to face other threats, such as a burgeoning human population around the special enclosures and a fall in its prey - deer and antelope.

Ramesh admitted that the government would have to face the challenge of "building up" the prey.

Even more discouraging, though, is the fact that India's track record in protecting the tiger does not augur well for the cheetah programme.

Every day, the tiger's numbers are falling as poachers kill the animal in the very parks and reserves especially created to protect it.

Estimates suggest that only 1,400 or so might be left as the trade in its skin and parts flourishes unabated.

Some tiger lovers are pouring scorn on the cheetah plan, arguing that if India has failed to protect the tiger, what good is it to bring back the cheetah only to let it suffer the same fate?

"I can't understand why we are creating more problems for ourselves," said wildlife activist Akash Rao.