Three years on, India’s cheetah reintroduction struggles with poor science, delays, and missed grassland objectives.
Timeline: Three Years of Mission Cheetah
2022 (September): Eight cheetahs from Namibia arrive at Kuno Nationwide Park. Mission formally launched.
2023 (February): Twelve extra cheetahs translocated from South Africa. One feminine offers start to 4 cubs in March (just one survives).
2023–24: Collection of deaths on account of infections, stress, and predator conflicts. Issues develop over extended captivity in bomas. No new imports regardless of the Motion Plan goal of 5–10 yearly.
2024: Worldwide hesitation stalls additional transfers. Panorama enlargement to Gandhi Sagar and Rajasthan stays largely on paper.
2025: Botswana agrees in precept to ship eight cheetahs — 4 in late 2025, 4 in 2026.
The Stalled Panorama Imaginative and prescient
Gandhi Sagar nonetheless struggles with a weak prey base. Rajasthan has made no seen progress on website preparation. The bigger thought — that cheetah reintroduction would additionally drive grassland restoration — has barely been acted upon. India’s grasslands proceed to be labelled “wastelands,” leaving them susceptible to diversion for improvement initiatives. In consequence, the ecological rationale of the cheetah challenge — to make use of the predator as an umbrella species for ecosystem revival — has been diluted.
The place Does the Mission Stand At present?
To be honest, Mission Cheetah has not been with out achievements. The actual fact that wild-born cubs appeared in India is a milestone. Veterinary protocols, radio-collaring methods, and educated monitoring groups had been arrange in file time. The challenge gained some recognition, together with the “Revolutionary Initiative Award” on the Eco Warrior Awards. However these beneficial properties have to be set in opposition to sobering realities. As many as 19 cheetahs, together with 10 cubs, have died in simply three years. Many have spent extended durations in captivity reasonably than roaming free. Administration has usually appeared advert hoc, with selections taken in response to crises reasonably than grounded in long-term ecological planning. The short-term emphasis has shifted from rewilding and panorama revival to merely maintaining the surviving cheetahs alive.
So, how ought to we assess Mission Cheetah on the three-year mark? The trustworthy reply is that for its long-term aims, it’s nonetheless too early to inform. Reintroductions are complicated, sluggish, and full of setbacks. It could be unrealistic to count on a thriving free-ranging cheetah inhabitants inside such a brief span. However relating to short-term objectives, the image is much less encouraging. Implementation has been weak and riddled with deviations from the Motion Plan. The challenge has leaned on poor science and insufficient monitoring, whereas clear evaluation has been conspicuously absent. With out goal evaluation, the identical errors preserve recurring.Equally worrying is the narrative administration. There seems to be strain to current the challenge as a grand success, even when proof suggests in any other case. This tendency to have a good time prematurely dangers masking the gaps that want fixing.
This brings us to the central paradox of Mission Cheetah. On paper, it’s about ecological restoration — reviving grasslands, conserving open pure ecosystems, and securing related species. In observe, nonetheless, it has turn out to be about disaster administration, captive holding, and importing a trickle of cheetahs to take care of appearances.Except the challenge realigns itself with its founding function, it dangers changing into little greater than a conservation mascot train. Cheetahs can’t survive — not to mention thrive — with out expansive, wholesome habitats, sturdy prey bases, and landscape-level connectivity. With out these, India dangers maintaining cheetahs alive in enclosures whereas their bigger function — ecosystem revival — slips away.
Classes for the Future
The way in which ahead requires extra humility, extra science, and extra honesty. India should guarantee its import commitments. We additionally must introspect what went mistaken in relations with our preliminary cheetah companions -Namibia and South African. Prey base augmentation have to be prioritised. Impartial scientific monitoring ought to be inspired, not resisted. Three years on, Mission Cheetah stands at a crossroads. It stays a strong image of ecological ambition, a reminder that India dared to undo an extinction. But it surely additionally reveals how ambition can falter when planning is weak, science is sidelined, and politics takes priority over ecology.
It’s nonetheless too early to put in writing the challenge off, however the warning indicators are onerous to disregard. Except India learns from these three misplaced years and realigns observe with function, Mission Cheetah could also be remembered extra for its spectacle than its substance. The approaching years will resolve whether or not the cheetah turns into a real agent of grassland revival, or just a conservation curiosity .
By: Deshdeep Saxena
Pictures courtesy: Kuno Nationwide Park
