12 South African cheetahs arrive for India rewilding

NEW DELHI: Twelve South African cheetahs arrived in India on Saturday as part of an ambitious project to reintroduce the spotted cats in the south Asian country.

The big cats landed in their new country aboard an Indian Air Force C-17 Globemaster aircraft, the second batch to arrive following another eight cheetahs transferred from Namibia last year.

The latest arrival is part of an agreement signed by South Africa in January to transfer more than 100 cheetahs to India over the next decade.

Their resettlement “provides space for the expansion of the cheetah within its historical range”, India’s environment ministry said Saturday.

The plane carrying the cheetahs arrived in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior airport on Saturday afternoon.

After reaching the Gwalior air base, the big cats were taken to Kuno National Park, which is located around 200 km, along with South African cheetah experts. Thereafter, the cheetahs would be released into quarantine bomas by the Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also joined the Union Minister on this occasion.

As per the official information, of the 12 cheetahs -- seven males and five females -- will find their new home at Kuno National Park in Sheopur district.

As many as 10 quarantine enclosures have been created at the reserve for the big cats, officials said. As per Indian wildlife laws, the animals are required to be kept in isolation for 30 days after their arrival in the country.

India was once home to the Asiatic cheetah but the animal was declared extinct there by 1952, primarily because of habitat loss and deaths at the hands of hunters seeking their distinctive spotted hides.

Efforts to reintroduce the animal gathered pace in 2020 when India’s Supreme Court ruled that African cheetahs, a different subspecies, could be brought into the country on an experimental basis.

The 12 cheetahs from South Africa will join their Namibian cousins at the Kuno National Park, a wildlife sanctuary 320 kilometres (200 miles) south of New Delhi, selected for its abundant prey and grasslands.

Quarantine enclosures have been created at the reserve for the newly arriving cheetahs, officials said.

Their arrival is the first intercontinental relocation of the planet’s fastest land animal.

Cheetahs are one of the oldest big cat species, with ancestors dating back about 8.5 million years, and once roamed widely throughout Asia and Africa in great numbers.

But today only around 7,000 remain, primarily in the African savannahs.

The cheetah is listed globally as “vulnerable” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.

Their survival is threatened primarily by dwindling natural habitat and loss of prey due to human hunting, the development of land, and climate change.

Conservation scientist Ravi Chellam told AFP last year that cheetah cubs could fall prey to feral dogs and other carnivores in India.