PM Modi reintroduces extinct cheetahs on his birthday

PM releases wild Cheetahs – which had become extinct from India, in Kuno National Park, in Madhya Pradesh on September 17, 2022.
PM Modi after the historical release of Cheetahs
One of the eight Cheetahs released in the enclosure

Cheetahs are set to roam in India for the first time since they were declared officially extinct in 1952. A group of eight cats arrived from Namibia on the occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday on September 17.

The cats will undergo a month-long quarantine before being released in Kuno national park in central India. Cheetahs formerly shared jungles with other big cats like lions and tigers but disappeared 70 years ago. They are the world’s fastest land animals, capable of reaching speeds of 70 miles an hour.

This is the first time a large carnivore is being moved from one continent to another and reintroduced to the wild. At least 20 cheetahs are coming to India from South Africa and Namibia, home to more than a third of the world’s 7,000 cheetahs.

The first batch of eight – five females and three males, aged between two and six years – arrived from Windhoek in Namibia to the Indian city of Gwalior on September 17. Wildlife experts, veterinary doctors, and three biologists accompanied the animals as they made the transcontinental journey in a modified passenger Boeing 747 plane.

The Striped Flight

The jet’s striking paint scheme was planned in 2015

The Terra Avia Boeing 747-400 that flew in the eight African cheetahs from Windhoek, Namibia to Gwalior on September 17 was on a special mission, but the aircraft itself had been the flagship of another conservation campaign much earlier.

The jet’s striking paint scheme — the image of a tiger — was planned in 2015 when the aircraft was with the Russian carrier, Transaero Airlines, now defunct. As a part of the project, known as the ‘Striped Flight’, the visual was to run across parts of the fuselage, with the nose to sport the head of one of the world’s largest big cats, the endangered Russian Amur tiger.

The plane, first owned by Singapore Airlines in 2001, was acquired by an American bank in 2012. It was later leased to Transaero.

India has been making efforts to reintroduce cheetahs since the 1950s. An effort in the 1970s from Iran was unsuccessful after the Shah of Iran was deposed and the negotiations stopped.

Reintroduction: No Easy Task

The first generation of the reintroduced cheetahs in India may have to be monitored for their entire life and “success will take a lot of time” as bringing an animal back from extinction in a country is not an easy process, says Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) founder Dr. Laurie Marker.

The cheetahs brought from Namibia are used to other predators such as leopards and lions. However, there can be losses due to the interaction between the species like leopards in India, Marker said.

The CCF has closely assisted Indian authorities in re-introducing cheetahs in the country. Since 2009, Marker has been to India several times to conduct site assessments and draft plans. The cheetah expert said growing a population with natural mortality takes time.

India and the extinction of the Cheetah

The first cheetah in the world to be bred in captivity was in India during the rule of the Mughal emperor Jahangir. His father, Akbar, recorded that there were 10,000 cheetahs during his reign from 1556 to 1605. Many kings in India kept, bred, and trained Cheetahs to help them in the hunt.

Much later, research suggested the number of cheetahs had dropped to a couple of hundred by the 19th Century – and the cat was reportedly sighted for the last time in India 70 years ago. The cheetah is the only large mammal to become extinct in India since its independence from British rule.

Images courtesy of Indian TV News, PIB, HT, TOI and Nature

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