Action Plan on Cheetah Introduction

In News

• An Action Plan regarding the introduction of the Cheetah in India was released in the 19th Meeting of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) (Statutory Body). 

Reintroduction Action Plan

• Under the plan, 50 Cheetahs will be introduced in the different National Parks in the country in a span of 5 years.
  • Initially, translocating around 8-12 cheetahs from South Africa, Namibia and Botswana will be done.
  • This is the first time in the world that a large carnivore will be relocated from one continent to another.
• African Cheetah from South Africa was expected to be reintroduced in Kuno National Park (MP) in November 2021(Postponed due to Covid-19).
  • Kuno National Park (MP) has a healthy population of chital, sambar, nilgai, wild pig, chinkara and cattle emerged as one of the most promising habitats for the cheetah.

Other highlights of the meeting of NTCA

• Water Atlas:
  • A Water Atlas was also released at the meeting. It maps all the water bodies in the tiger-bearing areas of India. 
  • The atlas contains landscape-wise information including, the Shivalik Hills and Gangetic plain landscape, Central Indian Landscape and Eastern Ghats, Western Ghats landscape, North Eastern Hills and Brahmaputra flood plains, and Sundarbans.
• CA|TS Accreditation:
  • CA|TS or Conservation Assured |Tiger Standards is a globally accepted conservation tool that sets best practices and standards to manage tigers and encourages assessments to benchmark progress.
  • In July 2021, India’s 14 Tiger Reserves had received the CA|TS accreditation and works are in progress for more reserves to join the list

Reason for introduction in India

• To conserve threatened species and restore ecosystem functions.
• The cheetah is the only large carnivore that has been extirpated, mainly by over-hunting in India in historical times. 
• India now has the economic ability to consider restoring its lost natural heritage for ethical as well as ecological reasons.

Concerns over reintroduction

• The cheetah is a wide-ranging species, known to travel across areas up to 1,000 sq km in a single year. Indian parks tend to be much smaller than those in Africa, offering less chance for such free movement.
• The reports state that Kuno might not be a favourable spot as there is no data that shows that cheetahs, lions, tigers and leopards can coexist comfortably in the same habitat.
• African Cheetahs are substantially different from Asiatic Cheetahs that were found in India before they went extinct.
• The new cheetahs may take away resources from wildlife protection efforts that are already struggling to protect endangered animals. This means that monitoring the reintroduced animals is going to be both cost and time-intensive.

Source: TH