INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Eight big cats from Namibia made the long trek Saturday in a chartered cargo flight to the northern Indian city of Gwalior, as part of an
ambitious and hotly contested plan to reintroduce cheetahs to the South Asian country, AP reported.From Gwalior they were moved to their new
home: a sprawling national park in the heart of India where scientists hope the world&s fastest land animal will roam again.Indian Prime
Minister Narendra Modi released the cats into their enclosure Saturday morning
The cats emerged from their cage, tentatively at first while continuously scanning their new surroundings, AP reported.When the cheetah will
run again … grasslands will be restored, biodiversity will increase and eco-tourism will get a boost,& said Modi.Cheetahs were once
widespread in India and became extinct in 1952 from hunting and loss of habitat
They remain the first and only predator to die out since India&s independence in 1947.India hopes importing African cheetahs will aid
efforts to conserve the country&s threatened and largely neglected grasslands.There are less than 7,000 adult cheetahs left in the wild
globally, and they now inhabit less than 9% of their original range.Shrinking habitat, due to the increasing human population and climate
change, is a huge threat and India&s grasslands and forests could offer &appropriate& homes for the big cat, said Laurie Marker, of the
Cheetah Conservation Fund, an advocacy and research group assisting in bringing the cats to India.To save cheetahs from extinction, we need
to create permanent places for them on earth,& she said.Cheetah populations in most countries are declining
An exception to this is South Africa, where the cats have run out of space.Experts hope that Indian forests could offer these cats space to
There are currently a dozen cheetahs in quarantine in South Africa, and they are expected to arrive at the Kuno National Park soon.Earlier
this month, four cheetahs captured at reserves in South Africa were flown to Mozambique, where the cheetah population has drastically
declined.Some experts are more cautious.There could be &cascading and unintended consequences& when a new animal is brought to the mix, said
Mayukh Chatterjee of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.For example, a tiger population boom in India has led to more
conflict with people sharing the same space
With cheetahs, there are questions about how their presence would affect other carnivores like striped hyenas, or even prey like birds.The
post Cheetahs make a comeback in India after 70 years first appeared on Ariana News.
