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Return of Cheetah

The original plan was to reintroduce the cheetah in 2021; the agenda was delayed because of the second wave of Covid-19. Seventy years after the creature was officially declared to be extinct in the country, it will be reintroduced in the national parks in Sheopur and Morena districts of the Gwalior-Chambal regions of Madhya Pradesh. This will be the world’s first inter-continental cheetah translocation project.

Return of Cheetah

[Representational Photo : iStock]

Yet another attraction is in store for wildlife enthusiasts and tourists generally. Not the least because the cheetah, extinct in India since independence ~ no co-relation need be drawn ~ is gearing up for a return, if Wednesday’s statement of the Union environment minister, Bhupender Yadav, is any indication.

The Centre has initiated steps to translocate the first batch of eight to twelve cheetahs from South Africa, Namibia and Botswana to the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. The stock, so to speak, will be replenished over the next five years with the translocation of 50 more from the various parks that dot the country’s landscape. This must seem to be a fairly rational proposition primarily because of the natural habitat, which is far removed the captivity of zoological gardens and the prankish behaviour of some of the visitors.

The minister unveiled the Centre’s “action plan” for the return of the cheetah in India at the 19th meeting of the National Tiger Conservation Authority. The original plan was to reintroduce the cheetah in 2021; the agenda was delayed because of the second wave of Covid-19. Seventy years after the creature was officially declared to be extinct in the country, it will be reintroduced in the national parks in Sheopur and Morena districts of the Gwalior-Chambal regions of Madhya Pradesh. This will be the world’s first inter-continental cheetah translocation project.

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By the end of this year, the country is expected to be all the richer in terms of wildlife, with the translocation of cheetahs from South Africa and Namibia. Mr Yadav has also released a Water Atlas that maps all the waterbodies in the “tiger-bearing areas” of India. The Atlas includes the Shivalik Hills and the Gangetic plain landscape, the topography of central India and the Eastern Ghats, Western Ghats, North-eastern Hills, the Brahmaputra flood plains and the Sundarbans.

Not wholly unrelated is the directive forwarded by the Union ministry of forest, environment and climate change to its office in Dehra Dun. Protection of waterbodies in the Corbett Tiger Reserve from the unauthorised construction of buildings is at the core of the cache of instructions. It is imperative to counter the rampant real estate boom in the periphery of a wildlife sanctuary with what the Centre calls “appropriate action”.

A copy of the directive has also been sent to the Uttarakhand government and the head of the state’s forest force. Forest wealth is in urgent need of protection. Small wonder that the communication directs that legal proceedings ought to be initiated against offenders under the Forest Conservation Act of 1980.

The state of affairs seems to be rather distressing and not merely in the vicinity of the Corbett Tiger Reserve. More the reason why the sanctuaries need additional protection once the cheetahs are flown in from distant Africa.

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